Article by Pat Schrawder
Live Weather Reports on Your Boat
Ask almost anyone who has been in boating for a while and they will tell you that having live weather reports and updates is an invaluable tool for safety and a big fishing advantage. We have traditionally relied upon the VHF weather channel to bring us most weather information but that has taken a back seat to full weather data, including sea surface temperature, delivered on your boat basically in real time.
Sirius Satellite radio offers this feature. Sirius has partnered with WSI, a leader in the commercial weather service industry. WSI combines NOAA data with information from several other sources to analyze, forecast and present weather information to numerous agencies and concerns, including federal, state and local governments. This information is delivered via Sirius compatible digital receivers both inshore and offshore.
At the present time, this weather service is available for display in color graphics on certain GPS plotter integrated systems made by Furuno NavNet NT, Northstar, Raymarine, Simrad and Lowrance. You can also receive it on your PC through WxMate receivers and software supplied by AirGator. While Furuno only offers this feature for their C-Map NT based units, your dealer can convert existing Navionics based units to C-Map so they can still be used. Then you only have to change your chart.
Installation involves hook up of a Sirius weather receiver, an antenna and a subscription to the service. The cost of the subscription is a one time $25 activation fee and basic mariner service for $29.99 per month. For boaters, they have offered a six month seasonal service.
If you want to add simultaneous reception of Sirius radio to your package, you must have a Sirius receiver, tuner and speakers or, if you already have a stereo on your boat, just a Sirius receiver. Sirius offers a special rate to just add radio service. Because it is satellite based, weather reception is available within any of the 48 contiguous states and hundreds of miles into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
The weather information you can receive is numerous. Here are just a few examples:
• WSI NOWRad animated weather radar updated every 5 minutes
• Lightning strikes
• Tropical storm tracks
• High resolution sea surface temperature with warmer water shown in a different color
• Storm cell tracks, watches and warnings
• Marine zone forecasts and warnings
• Marine observations and buoy reports
• Surface features, squall lines and pressure
• Forecast wave height, period and direction
• Forecast winds
• NOAA marine zone forecasts
• Marine WatchBox
• Echo Tops
• City Forecasts
Actual display and manipulation of data may vary depending on which model of marine plotter or PC software you have, but they all have the same basic information since they are all receiving it from the same source. For example, Furuno emphasizes that their weather data can be overlaid onto their C-Map chart.
This is one of the newest innovations to come along in the marine electronics industry since the first introduction of the cartography plotter. Boaters who don’t have the above mentioned Sirius compatible plotter systems will want to start thinking “Sirius-ly” about one.
Pat Schrawder and her husband Larry are owners of L&L Marine Electronics on Golf Course Road in West Ocean City.
