2011-08-02 Arthur's Summer Coastal Cruising Odyssey 2011 - Pt 3
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It's all about the weather....not the sunshne, not the rain...it's about the the wind and the swell!
As always, I checked the weather forecasts regularly throughout the previous day. Monday looked good for departure to Dingle. And Tuesday looked like a possibility for continuing on to Bantry Bay. And the following Tuesday looked good for a return from Bantry Bay.
I use several weather foreasting sites, includng WindGuru which I find to be highly reliable and accurate. I like the way that it can highlight 'windows of opportunity', i.e. specific times of the day that might be more favourable for coastal cruising. And then sometimes you have to compromise...swell height v wind speed. And of course not forgetting wind and wave direction. And this time we also cast a closer eye on wave period...the intervals between waves.
And not that we put all our eggs into one basket (Windguru). We also check other sites, e.g. MagicSeaweed, Windfinder, PassageWeather. And Accuweather is good for the Shannon Estuary.
Monday morning looked good for a trip to Dingle. Wave height might be a little higher than we would normally countenance...but then life is never perfect! And it was nice to see that wave and wind direction were the same!
We planned to leave circa 07.00hrs. Passage duration would be approx. 5 - 6 hrs.
Also worth noting is the fact that although this WindGuru report is timed as 00.00 UTC the forecast is only posted 6 hours later. In other words I accessed the featured report at 06.00 hrs on Monday morning.
