Fee-Based Weather Forecasts

We compared four forecasting services — three for pay, one free, on an East Coast passage to Bermuda.

A 24-hour wind and wave chart for the western North Atlantic, showing wind-barbs and wave heights.

In years gone by, sailors going offshore would watch the barometer and keep a weather eye. Nowadays, there's plenty of weather information available, on the Internet and elsewhere. But do you trust yourself to interpret it correctly? Sure, many of us have the textbook knowledge that winds circulate counterclockwise around a low (in the Northern Hemisphere, at any rate) and that the closer the isobars are together, the stronger the winds—but just how strong? It takes an experienced eye to look at a weather chart and know its implications for a certain sector of ocean. …