where are Airmail/Winlink grib files stored?

[skipgundlach]

An obviously clueless geezer here.

I have 4.6.1 and would like to use the plugin to overlay gribs I pull over winlink.

But I can't find them, other than in my winmail, as an attachment, of course.

How do I access them to overlay onto OpenCPN?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip, prepping for an offshore ft. Pierce to Portland

[Paul Elliott]

You can save the winmail attachments to any directory you like (I have one called "[my documents]/GRIB"). Then in the OCPN grib plugin, click on the file folder icon and tell it which gribfile to use.

[skipgundlach]

Well...

So, I went to one of my test pulls and 'saved as' in the itsfhcb or whatever that string is, and got it to come up on OCPN.

But I can't seem to get any data - just arrows.

Stupid newbie question, I know, but it's been 12 years since I started with Pactor, and am only now getting to know how to fetch fax/grib files ...

[skipgundlach]

LOL

ROFL

So, I go diminish my view enough to get a very large file displayed with arrows.

And I wander around in the wilderness, and out of the corner of my eye I see changes happening in the little block on the upper left.

Of course, the info I'm looking for is there on the bottom bar. Waves and wind, nicely displayed for the period I'm in. I'm sure it will persist through the forecast time.

Ah well.

Someone else might learn from my ignorance!

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

LOL

ROFL

So, I go diminish my view enough to get a very large file displayed with arrows.

And I wander around in the wilderness, and out of the corner of my eye I see changes happening in the little block on the upper left.

Of course, the info I'm looking for is there on the bottom bar. Waves and wind, nicely displayed for the period I'm in. I'm sure it will persist through the forecast time.

Ah well.

Someone else might learn from my ignorance!

If you really want to expand your horizons. Download ROTFS (Ocean Current Gribs) and combine them by loading them up simultaneously with Wind Gribs in OCPN.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

If you really want to expand your horizons. Download ROTFS (Ocean Current Gribs) and combine them by loading them up simultaneously with Wind Gribs in OCPN.

Thanks for that!

At this very moment I can't take the time to explore, but I was going to ask the Sailmail folks why it was that I can't seem to get anything other than the GFS info on my download.

Is the ROTFS on that same catalog?

Sorry for the hurry...

[skipgundlach]

So, responding to my own post, I see that it is, but I can't get the arrows to display on CPN (though the grib file which comes down has them, albeit with no chart characteristics).

Ticking and removing any specifications that are ticked one at a time didn't change the display.

While I can meander the mouse and get the same scroll-under it doesn't have directional clues, which gets important the further north I go and the speed drops, with perhaps as much the other way outside of the right location...

How do I get the arrows to show on the chart?

Thanks for the tip!

[Paul Elliott]

Skip, the grib files don't contain arrows, or isobars, or colors. They just contain data on a grid of lat/lon points. The arrows (etc) are created by the whichever program you are using to display the gribfile data. This data may include surface pressure, windspeed and direction, various wave parameters, and many other parameters.

Can you post the grib request you sent to saildocs? Seeing this we can tell you what data should be there for OCPN to display.