Cost/Benefit Ratio of Offsoundings weather reports

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Breaking Waves

............

I'm not going to reply to points in your posts where you edit INSIDE a quote. There is too much administrative work on my end which is rude and unfair.

I'm not set in my ways with respect to mission critical functions. I have used gribs. I have studied the application of gribs. Synoptic charts are better.

In my previous career I ran programs that included among many other things automated image processing. I know the limits.

Originally Posted by Don C L

ummm... lots of good info here, but I'm just really impressed Auspicious knows how to use the word "grok" appropriately.

*grin* I couldn't think of a better verb than that for applying the information in 500 mb charts.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Paul L

... When we started our crossing of the Indian Ocean we had to throw in the towel and buy an IridiumGo, as SSB connectivity is just too poor in this ocean and weather is really needed...

I am a bit curious about this comment. After you started across and discovered the poor SSB connectivity, how did you then buy an IridiumGo?

Perhaps reports from other cruisers were not positive enough to convince you.

We had good SSB connectivity and GRIB reception from Brunei nearly to Mauritius. When we lost Brunei we switched to Africa and picked up our GRIB files from Africa from then on.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by wingssail

I am a bit curious about this comment. After you started across and discovered the poor SSB connectivity, how did you then buy an IridiumGo?

Perhaps reports from other cruisers were not positive enough to convince you.

We had good SSB connectivity and GRIB reception from Brunei nearly to Mauritius. When we lost Brunei we switched to Africa and picked up our GRIB files from Africa from then on.

We were warned by the prior year boats that crossed, Recent HF connections have not been good the past few years so comparing to a crossing years ago is not meaningful.
We lost the Brunei Sailmail station a few days out of Malaysia and did not pickup the South African one till well into the Mozambique Channel. I could get neither station while in Chagos.
Prior to the Indian Ocean all our offshore connectivity was via HF Sailmail with a little winlink.