[John B]

Last night I read about a couple of new services for getting real time wether info on your boat. One is in conjunction with the Weather Channel. It all looks very nice and has definite value on board, but I'm not entirely sold on this.

Check it out here: www.weather.com/marine

According to the web site this service costs $1,995 for hardware plus $695 per year in subscription plus $100 activation fee.

When I read about this I got all excited and then realized that I already have access to all of this information and more, for free. Well almost. I have satellite internet access on my boat. While it is more expensive I get full high speed internet access as well.

As for marine weather info, I have all the links on my laptop already and just fire it up on board and get all they offer and even more:

NOAA weather:

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtb.../an/anz330.txt

Radar, Satellite images, weather map:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/okx/

Buoy Observations:

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Northeast.shtml

Tropical Storms:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Normal 5-day forecasts:

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USCT0218_f.html

Best place to start for even more:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/atlantic.htm

I guess my view is it probably makes more sense to spend a bit more money and get full satellite internet access which gives all this setup does as well as email, surfing, etc. etc. The same satellite dish is also used for satellite TV service as well....

I'm curious what others think or use

[YachtForums]

These are GREAT links! Thank you, John. This is the kind of info that will make Yacht Forums a place that mariners & boaters want to visit.

With your permission, I'd like to use these links for the splash page (front page) I'm creating for Yacht Forums over the summer.

Excellent post!!

[John B]

Use it however you like - it's all public domain

[Qocean]

Sounds like a good option for people that want good up to date weather information, without spending the 5-15 grand on high speed internet.

Looked like it was working trough a parallel port, did not know anyone used them anymore. It’s really slow, and out of date. USB, firewire, even serial ports would be better. The subscription price! Very high. But, I think they are appealing to boaters who are looking for lower initial cost for internet. However, I think that most people should know about other options. Even using a Sat phone you can pull 9.6 kbs, or up to 144 kbs with software upgrades. Cost a bit more annually but, it is multi-functional in my mind.

Just my view.

E