What’s wrong with the weather? Predictwind! – October update
Spire, once praised by PredictWind for its accuracy in remote ocean forecasting, is quietly disappearing from the app. Meanwhile, new models like ICON, AIFS, and PWAI are appearing without explanation. Users are left confused, with major features removed and no clear communication from PredictWind about these significant changes
What’s wrong with the weather? Predictwind!
As long-time advocates and professional subscribers of PredictWind, we’ve relied on its advanced features: tracking, over-the-horizon AIS, AI polars, and high-resolution data, to plan safe and comfortable passages. However, this year’s voyages from Newfoundland to Iceland exposed critical shortcomings in the product’s most essential functions: departure planning and weather routing.
Abandoned places in stunning Labrador
There is something very special about Labrador and from the moment we arrived in Red Bay, we knew we would enjoy our stay here. This area of Canada is sparsely populated and full of exciting abandoned places to explore, and the people we met were super friendly and helpful, which made it hard to depart for Greenland.
In love with West Newfoundland
We had a great time sailing up the west coast of Newfoundland. There are some beautiful anchorages, but sometimes the charts data is not completely correct. We had to get off Rocky Harbour dock quickly because of a bad combination of big swells and a gnarly dock and the steep mountains can create some strong at times.
Amazing sailing and paddle-boarding in Nova Scotia
We depart the USA and are greeted in Canada with a fine on arrival. Despite the rocky start, Nova Scotia turns out to be an incredible place to sail and paddleboard. We explore stunning anchorages, navigate the shortest canal to Canada’s inland sea, and emerge into a world of lobster traps, big ships, and a giant fiddle.
Sailing to New York and saying farewell to the USA
Sailing to the Statue of Liberty was a fantastic experience, but also stressful due to the amount of traffic and river currents. The trip down the coast offers a lot of historic places, but cruising in the US has become very expensive. An app for booking spots at the marinas has strange terms and conditions, that don’t really fit the cruising life.
We discover the friendliest town in the US
We wintered longer than planned in Gloucester, finding warmth and welcome at Cape Ann Marina during the coldest season in years. With excellent facilities, friendly locals, and live music every night, it became a perfect place to winter the boat. From boat toilet upgrades to Boston day trips, our stay was full of memories, scallops, and kind-hearted connections.
We sailed to the US in time for Christmas
Since clearing into the US we’ve slowed down due to extreme weather and social visits. It was a tough sail to Portland that left Snow Bear frozen, but we made it safely. We had a great Christmas, explored Portland and Portsmouth. Now, we’re wintering in Gloucester, doing a few boat projects and enjoying the area’s rich maritime and cultural scene
We prepare to say farewell to Canada
In this post we return to the boat and continue south covering around 750NM along the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We share our tips for sailing in lobster season and would like to hear your experiences navigating around traps!
We start to feel winter and also some rough sea, while making preparations to depart from Canada before Christmas.
Can you trust your charts and plotters?
In this post, we take a moment to vent some of our frustrations with the current technologies and cartography that we sailors rely on to safely navigate the seas. These tools are critical for keeping us off the rocks, yet all too often, they fall short in quality, reliability, or usability.