Weather is one of the most important variables for anyone traveling by boat. The wind and wave direction, strength, and trend each can have a major impact on how enjoyable, and how safe, a passage is.
While on the US west coast, our two primary sources of weather are Windy.com and NOAA marine forecasts. Windy.com offers graphical interpretation of either the US GFS or the European ECMWF global forecast models. It’s a great way to quickly get a high level picture of future predicted conditions and trends.
A zone forecast from NOAA
NOAA publishes marine forecasts in more traditional text form. The data comes from the same two global forecast models, but it’s interpreted by a human meteorologist with additional comments about gales, storms, fog, and rain.
The NOAA marine forecasts are divided into regions (for example, Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington), and the regions are further subdivided into zones that are around 60 nautical miles, or 1 degree of latitude, of coastline.
As we left Monterey and sailed to Morro Bay, we left the Central California region and are now officially in Southern California, at least according to the meteorologists at NOAA. Getting closer!
