Next weather window for FL 2 Bahamas crossing.

[AST]

hi,
I have been looking at the weather and was wondering if this coming Saturday would be a good day to do the crossing.
Thanks.

[Wolfe10]

REALLY??


https://www.ventusky.com/?p=26.07;-7...=20231125/1500


And, knowing where you are leaving from/destination, kind of boat, boat speed and your offshore experience will also help.


But, PLEASE, do not rely on "I read it on the internet" to make a decision on crossing the Gulf Stream.

[boatpoker]

Check out windy, looks ok to me ... if they are right.
Slide the date along to "Saturday" and have a look.

https://www.windy.com/-Waves-waves?w...51,7,m:epMadWy

[AST]

So windy.com and ventusky.com are not in agreement. Ventusky is showing north wind while windy is showing south wind.
Planning on leaving from WPB to West End.
Boat island packet 29.

[boatpoker]

Bahamas weather has a facebook page that is pretty good.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021066422210578/

[Avionics_Joe]

Originally Posted by AST

So windy.com and ventusky.com are not in agreement. Ventusky is showing north wind while windy is showing south wind.
Planning on leaving from WPB to West End.
Boat island packet 29.

The link to ventusky.com is set to the ICON model, if you change it to ECMWF the two agree. I have never trusted the ICON model.

Check the weather before leaving!

[boatpoker]

Weather forecasts the last year or two have not been completely trustworthy.
We leave from WPB to West End at about 0400 and if we don't like it we turn around and have breakfast

[Wolfe10]

Originally Posted by AST

So windy.com and ventusky.com are not in agreement. Ventusky is showing north wind while windy is showing south wind.
Planning on leaving from WPB to West End.
Boat island packet 29.

With that boat/boat speed, you would be better leaving from further south. So, if you can, get on down to Fort Lauderdale. Easy to leave there any time of night for arrival West End in daylight.


And, absolutely agree, you are OK to start looking at weather windows now, but should not make the "GO" decision more than a few hours before departing.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by AST

So windy.com and ventusky.com are not in agreement. Ventusky is showing north wind while windy is showing south wind.
Planning on leaving from WPB to West End.
Boat island packet 29.

Both Windy and Ventusky allow you to change the model. If you select the same model on each of them, they will show exactly the same thing.

ECMWF is more often correct, but you should look at all of them. My 20 second takeaway is that wind is less than 10MPH on Saturday. I would guess the wind will be inconsistent and come from different directions at different times. The models try to average that, so will disagree.

The day before or the day of you can use the HRRR model. It has a higher resolution but only for 3 days.

[AST]

Thanks to all. I will be departing tomorrow Sunday at an early hour