Piloting
One of the many nautical things that we have only a cursory familiarity of is pilot charts. Different than those typically used for navigation, pilot charts show the average wind and current speeds and directions for any given month of the year. These are apparently helpful when planning passages, something that we’ll be doing more and more of in the very near future. While searching through one of our CD cases yesterday, I came across a disk given to us by our boat’s previous owners which contained copies of all of the pilot charts. I “think” these can also be downloaded off the web but given the slow and sporadic internet access that we have been getting, I’m happy that we won’t have to jump through those hoops to acquire them.
And the green lines are… current?
What are the red lines?
Yes, green = current.
“Solid red lines on the main body of the chart indicate the percent frequency of wave heights equal to or greater than 8 feet.”
Mike,
Where you are headed, it is important to note that commercial ships use this data as well, especially favorable currents. What is good for you is also very beneficial (economically) for them. So keep an eye out for traffic.
Thank you Kirk! Wish you were here traveling with us. We were on a 58′ Catana last night… almost as nice as your boat!
Handy tools, these pilot charts! Bearing in mind, of course, that these are averages, which may or may not be accurate on any given day in any given location! 🙂
Right, averages of data taken over a very long period of time.