Weather forecasts - Away from home

[Sav]

Hey all. How do you guys get access to weather when away from home for a few days or more (around UK, staying in B&B or campiste).

I am aware of the met office WeBsite with excellent Inshore Waters info and the 5 day surface pressure charts + buoy weathers etc, etc, BUT that is only OK from home and the comforts of a PC

What options are there on the move?

I have tried marinecall to text a mobile but the info is a bit limited (around 12 hrs max forecast with no info on sea states).

Other options I have considered:

1) Pop into a local marina and ask (but won't always launch near one).

2) Phone a hideously expensive weatherline or cheekily phone a marina and ask.

3) Buy a super expensive rugged waterproof, G Shock resistant laptop, take on rib and connect to internet via a mobile signal

4) Try one of those PDA things (not sure if they can access Weather internet sites).

5) Buy a NAVTEX (perhaps not really suitable for Rib)

6) Wet finger, stick in air, say "mmmm, well then" ......... and press on regardless

Thoughts much appreciated

Sav

[benc]

I believe you can either call/radio to the harbour master/coast guard and ask him.

Failing that, or if you just want the information at hand, then a recent Microsoft/Symbian/Palm PDA should be more than capable of looking at any weather website - connecting to the net could be the only issue, you can get some with sim cards in - or failing that, you can normally bluetooth to your mobile and piggyback the 3g/gprs connection.

HTH
Ben

[TJ101]

No 4 for me,, weatheronline via the PDA, work well

or if using a slipway, at a harbour, the harbourmaster office will have a notice board up, with current and expected weather

[MikeCC]

If you're on the boat itself, or have a handheld VHF, local coastguard broadcasts forecast - listen to ch16 for announcement and then switch to whatever one they say for the actual forecast. Four-hourly with different minutes past the hour for different areas. See this for schedule. Also includes safety information (MSI)

What's wrong with Navtex on a RIB? (Apart from a lot of them aren't waterproof!)

[Lostboy]

There's a lot of information available on the WAP services to mobile phones now. Live weather down here available includes Bramblemet, Chimet, Sotonmet and Cambermet. That includes all the charts of trends for the past 12 hours so you have a good idea of rising/falling pressures, winds, tides etc.

Obviously that is only a proportion of Central Southern England covered, I don't know about elsewhere.

[Northern Tim]

I use h/h vhf to listen for coastguard weather forecasts, and they'll also give it to you over the phone.

I have a windows mobile and that gets the BBC website no problem - gives you temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity and visibility though no sea state. There is also a section for coastal/inshore and offshore forecasts on there.

Tim.

[spence]

Might be a good idea to do a VHF course and you will find out how to obtain marine weather info via VHF.

Also if you have a radio then you can tune into the shipping forcast.

Or if all else fails walk up to the nearest town at about 10.28pm and stand infront of the local Rumbelows window to watch the end of the news!

[Sav]

Excellent stuff, thanks all.

TJ101, what PDA do you use, what are dial up costs and can you get onto Met Office website??


I really like the look of these toughbooks, waterproof, shockproof etc. You could take them on expeds and write articles, plan your route via Blue Chart CD, log on to the web etc. Only snag is v. expensive.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=2169



Sav

[DM]

Originally Posted by MikeCC

What's wrong with Navtex on a RIB?

I've got one on mine.

Originally Posted by MikeCC

Apart from a lot of them aren't waterproof!

Correct. Mine's knackered. Silva S15 one year old and full of DHMO.


DM