De Lorme Inreach Weather Forecasts

[Olddave]

Hi All,
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has used the Inreach weather forecasts in the Kimberleys, Western Australia. The Coastal & High Seas Forecasts that are issued by BOM are usually very good. Can I expect that sort of accuracy and professionalism from the De Lorme Inreach/Iridium service?

Thanks, Dave

[Dulcesuenos]

Ours were very accurate when crossing the Atlantic. The only thing Was it did not seem very easy to pick a spot on the map. Could have been our tablets fault. But at $1.00 per forecast big deal.

Sent from my PLT1077G using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[barnakiel]

You want the App.

There are three plans and they are not based on the same source.

Cheapest one (basic) is priced as if it were one sms.
The more in depth ones are priced 1$ each (detailed land or detailed marine).

Their only shortcoming is they give spot predictions, not a route-rolling meteogram. This is a minor glitch, if you are moving slow or if you care to update the wx forecast more often in less stable conditions.

Accuracy is about as good as anything else on the market. Definitely recommended and well worth trying out.

Cheers,
b.

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Ours were very accurate when crossing the Atlantic. The only thing Was it did not seem very easy to pick a spot on the map. Could have been our tablets fault. But at $1.00 per forecast big deal.

Sent from my PLT1077G using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Hi Dulcesuenos, I am very happy to hear from you & others with experience outside NW Australia. I am hoping the Delorme Explorer might be a capable & affordable substitute for HF and Sat phone for our coastal but remote cruising.
Thanks, Dave

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Their only shortcoming is they give spot predictions, not a route-rolling meteogram. This is a minor glitch, if you are moving slow or if you care to update the wx forecast more often in less stable conditions.

Accuracy is about as good as anything else on the market. Definitely recommended and well worth trying out.

Cheers,
b.

Hi Barnakiel
Spot predictions are OK for what we are doing. Hoping to be in the Kimberleys during the next dry season. We only need to know wind direction and strength for the next few days, to make the jump between anchorages comfortable. When we are further south, the seven day prediction will be enough to avoid winter lows. Thanks for your comments.
Dave

[seasick]

I communicate with several family boats via Inreach on a twice daily basis feeding them detailed wx from multiple sources like Meteoearth, NOAA Sats, local airport auto-reporting sites, etc. This gives them as accurate a picture as possible over a four day window. This is fun for me as it affords me the opportunity to cruise vicariously between my own voyages and allows me to keep on top of changes in global climate. I recommend finding a friend or family member who has the time and inclination to learn the basics of forecasting and have them feed you the forecasts.

[DenverSailors]

Seasick, As a rookie cruiser stuck in the middle of the continent (Did you guess Denver?) for another few years (we can't convince our kids to drop out of school!) the service you provide could/should be marketed. Just saying...you'd have at least one customer for our infrequent trips as we continue to sail from Annapolis to Tampa!!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by seasick

I communicate with several family boats via Inreach on a twice daily basis feeding them detailed wx from multiple sources like Meteoearth, NOAA Sats, local airport auto-reporting sites, etc. This gives them as accurate a picture as possible over a four day window. This is fun for me as it affords me the opportunity to cruise vicariously between my own voyages and allows me to keep on top of changes in global climate. I recommend finding a friend or family member who has the time and inclination to learn the basics of forecasting and have them feed you the forecasts.

Hi Seasick,
Thanks for replying. I have toyed with the idea of having family send us their interpretation/summary of various weather products. Its a good idea & as you say it would be good for development of their weather knowledge. I'm not sure what the cost of text messages TO Inreach numbers is. I presume they are charged at their normal plan rate and that I would be charged by DeLorme for receiving the same text?
Dave

[seasick]

@OldDave My family utilizes Delorm's unlimited text plan which I understand to be less than $70. Per month.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Olddave

Hi All,
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has used the Inreach weather forecasts in the Kimberleys, Western Australia. The Coastal & High Seas Forecasts that are issued by BOM are usually very good. Can I expect that sort of accuracy and professionalism from the De Lorme Inreach/Iridium service?

Thanks, Dave

Hi Dave,

I can't answer your direct question about DeLorme Wx product quality for the Kimberleys. But if you are interested, there was another discussion recently on this topic, but more general in nature.

Since I had just assisted a cruising friend by feeding him Wx info to his DeLorme Inreach [because he found the DeLorme Wx products insufficient for his needs cruising Kodiak Alaska waters] I did a brief write-up revealing a Delorme Inreach with an unlimited plan isn't much cheaper than a used sat phone with international minutes, or even an Iridium GO! with unlimited plan [since you can pause the plan, and when you include the value of the additional in-depth Wx products you can receive...]

That blog post links back to the similar discussion on this forum.

In case it is of interest.

Best wishes finding what best suits your needs.

Cheers!

Bill

[meirriba]

On my ocean crossing we took a rented Iridium as we wanted the option of voice communication with our families.
Text messages from shore to Iridium are free although restricted to 140 char (but you can send as many as you wish). A friend on shore sent daily forecast written in sort of shorthand to make it concise, e.g. B4 NE wvs60, 2-3m.
The digits after 'waves' mean compass direction where the waves are to come.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by meirriba

On my ocean crossing we took a rented Iridium as we wanted the option of voice communication with our families.
Text messages from shore to Iridium are free although restricted to 140 char (but you can send as many as you wish). A friend on shore sent daily forecast written in sort of shorthand to make it concise, e.g. B4 NE wvs60, 2-3m.
The digits after 'waves' mean compass direction where the waves are to come.

Yes.

The same method used with great many of my clients. I will often use 3 sms for a full 'report': situation, rolling forecast, route advice.

These messages can be sent from web interface or directly from your email box. If you use email box, the sender must set the msg type to text to avoid html junk.

Works with Iridium, Inmarsat and Thuraya.

Two-way communicators have their own gates built into their web based service. So again, you are sending an sms to the device, only this time you are limited to the web interface only.

The limitation of web interface method is that should the interface fail, you cannot send info from a plain email program (email-to-sms). This did happen to us with one of the big names recently that decided a gotcha (proving you are not a robot by clicking relevant images) got implemented on their web interface: the gotcha failed and the interface became useless. Very stupid move by that sat phone company.

A land based router is good yet if someone can have both (InReach wx App and a human router), this is probably belt and braces.

WARNING: When the web interface says 'you msg has been submitted' or 'sent' mind they do not say delivered. This has been a problem more than once and caused some ripples across the wx routers world. So if the matter is serious, always agree with the receiving end they will send back a 'roger roger' sms once they have received your communication.

Cheers,
b.

[Ndavies]

We are big fans of the DeLorme and have used it now for several years. The addition of weather is great - I can't comment on your location bit we used in on a recent trip to Mexico and Cuba and it worked well. We also recently added iridium Go, but I found we used we used the DeLorme much more and also for communications to our land support who also kept an eye on weather for us.

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Hi Dave,

I can't answer your direct question about DeLorme Wx product quality for the Kimberleys. But if you are interested, there was another discussion recently on this topic, but more general in nature.

Since I had just assisted a cruising friend by feeding him Wx info to his DeLorme Inreach [because he found the DeLorme Wx products insufficient for his needs cruising Kodiak Alaska waters] I did a brief write-up revealing a Delorme Inreach with an unlimited plan isn't much cheaper than a used sat phone with international minutes, or even an Iridium GO! with unlimited plan [since you can pause the plan, and when you include the value of the additional in-depth Wx products you can receive...]

That blog post links back to the similar discussion on this forum.

In case it is of interest.

Best wishes finding what best suits your needs.

Cheers!

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the info and ideas. One interesting point I picked up (from the Galley) was that the DeLorme forecasts can be sketchy for coastal areas outside USA. For our purposes it may be adequate to have family summarise forecasts and Text them to us. Email facility is desirable & upgrading to the new Iridium GO in a year or two would be likely.
Julie & I have just returned from a visit to Broome, which is the southern gateway to the Kimberleys. The weather was perfect, 27 to 30 degrees with light to moderate easterlies most of the time!! Hard to take and easy to forecast.
Dave

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by meirriba

On my ocean crossing we took a rented Iridium as we wanted the option of voice communication with our families.
Text messages from shore to Iridium are free although restricted to 140 char (but you can send as many as you wish). A friend on shore sent daily forecast written in sort of shorthand to make it concise, e.g. B4 NE wvs60, 2-3m.
The digits after 'waves' mean compass direction where the waves are to come.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't looked closely at the cost of renting yet. In Western Australia many businesses aim similar products at the mining sector and thus ask ridiculous prices (even though the resource boom is well and truly over!) Hopefully I can work out which unit to buy and just go for it!
Dave