RTOFS Gulf Stream Model, Saildocs and Viewfax

[msulc]

With some help from an article on Panbo, I was able to download the gulf stream current using Saildocs and view them using viewfax for the next 5 days. I would have thought that:
1) There velocities would have been greater (I found two knots at most when I hovered the mouse over the red arrows in the middle of the stream). However, I think we had at least 3-4 knots pushing us from Florida up to the Cheseapeake.
2) That the current velocities wouldn't change that much from day to day. When I look at the day comparisons, there are a lot of changes.

By the way, to get to everything working, I had to:
1) Send email to: query@saildocs.com
Subject header could be anything.
In the body, have one line with:
RTOFS:37N,24N,082W,065W|0.05,0.06|0,24,48,72,96,12 0




2) Once I received the email back from saildocs, I saved it to my machine.

3) Install Viewfax 5.0.56 (earlier version did not work). Site was:
Airmail weather fax
Make sure to use the bottom link to get the right version. Check help in the menu of the software once installed to make sure.

4) Once installed, run program and do a File, Open, and select the grib. Go through day by day.

The link on Panbo was:
Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog: Saildocs, a Gram Schweikert tutorial

[dacust]

Very cool. Thanks.

[brak]

Incidentally, RTOFS data is available in PolarView without the need for a multi-step email/save/open process.
Click to select area, press "download", wait about 20 seconds and you should be good to go.

As far as I understand, at least when it comes to wind models, it's more about magnitude and direction than absolute speed. Perhaps RTOFS is similar when it comes to currents.