By Bill Woodroffe
Sailors rely on good weather information every day. With today’s communication technology there are multiple ways to gather this information. One of the more traditional and reliable ways, worldwide, is via High Frequency (HF) Single Side Band radio (SSB). This updated station list reports weather in plain language.
Times: Atlantic Standard Time (AST) = -4 hours from UTC. Eastern Standard Time (EST) = -5 hours from UTC. Central Standard Time (CST) = -6 hours from UTC. AST does not change to Daylight Time. AST covers Eastern Caribbean; EST covers US East Coast, Bahamas, Colombia, Panama; CST covers west of Florida, Western Caribbean.
Emergencies: In case of maritime emergency, there is a 24/7 (24-hour) Maritime Mobile Net (Emergency, Weather and Cruiser Assistance) at 14300 kHz Upper Sideband (USB)/HAM. Anyone, licensed or not, may legally operate on any radio frequency (HAM or Marine) in the event of life threatening or distress situations.
Chris Parker of Marine Weather Center (MWXC) in Florida listens for emergency traffic at the very beginning of his weather net on 4045, 8137 and 12350 kHz USB.
Stations listed as HAM can be listened to but a HAM license is needed to broadcast (except in emergencies).
Special Storm Nets:
When there are active tropical systems in the Atlantic, Marine Weather Center (MWXC) runs a net at 2300 UTC /1900 AST on 8.137 kHz USB.
Find tropical storm or hurricane activity information continuously on the Hurricane Watch Net on 14325 kHz USB Ham and 3950 kHz LSB Ham.
UTC/AST STATION and DESCRIPTION FREQ MODE
0515/0115 USCG High Seas/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
0930/0530 USCG Offshore/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
1000/0600 Daily Caribbean Weather 6215 USB
1030/0630 Caribbean Emergency & Weather HAM 3815/7162 LSB
1100/0700 MWXC (C. Parker) East Carib 4045, 8137 USB
1130/0730 MWXC (C. Parker) Bahamas 8137,12350 USB
1115/0715 USCG High Seas/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
1220/0820 Bahamas Weather 3696, 7096 LSB
1230/0830 MWXC US EC, W Atlantic 8137,12350 USB
1530/1130 USCG High Seas/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
1200/0800 Coconut Telegraph, Eastern Caribbean 4048, 8170 USB
1245/0845 Waterway Cruising Club HAM 7268 LSB
1330/0930 MWXC (C. Parker) W Caribbean 8137,12350 USB
1330/0930 Panama Connection Net 8107, 8167 USB
1330/0930 Cruzheimers Net 8152 USB
1400/1000 Northwest Caribbean Net 6209 USB
1715/1315 USCG High Seas Forecast NOTE 1 USB
2100/1700 Doo-Dah Net, Bahamas, US EC 8152 USB
2130/1730 Trans-Atlantic Cruisers (SSCA) NOTE 2 12350 USB
2130/1730 USCG Offshore/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
2200/1800 MWXC (C. Parker) All areas NOTE 3 8137,12350 USB
2230/1830 Caribbean Weather 3815` LSB
2315/1915 USCG High Seas/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
2235/1835 Caribbean Emergency & Weather HAM 3815, 7162 LSB
0330/2330 USCG Offshore/Hurricane Forecast NOTE 1 USB
Note 1: USCG broadcast NOAA forecasts from: NMN Chesapeake, 4426, 6501, 8764, 13089, 17314 and NMG New Orleans, 4316, 8502, 12788. Monitor all frequencies as not all frequencies are always used.
www.weather.gov/marine/uscg_broadcasts
Note 2: The Trans-Atlantic Cruisers Net is only live during migration periods when boats are coming or going between Europe and North America. That net is always on 12.350 kHz at 1230 hrs UTC. KPK as net controller will be assisted by stations WCY, KNC and KJM.
Note 3: Please hail Marine Weather Center 15 minutes before the net so that Parker knows where to aim his antenna to reach you. This net is geared primarily to offshore Atlantic and Pacific passage makers. For schedule updates see www.mwxc.com
Weather on the Internet.
Got internet? There are many websites that are free and provide a good source of local and worldwide weather information. This list is not exclusive and does not include paid weather sites that also provide good weather information and are tailored to the cruising sailor.
General weather
Windy – World Wide Winds, Currents, Waves, Swell www.windy.com
NOAA Ocean Prediction Center Atlantic Basin ocean.weather.gov/Atl_tab.php
NOAA Surface Tropical synopsis ocean.weather.gov/UA/Atl_Tropics.gif
Mike’s Weather Page spaghettimodels.com/default.htm
The Weather Channel weather.com/
Buoy Weather www.buoyweather.com/#4.69/15.14/-61.86/SWELL
Storms and hurricanes
NOAA National Hurricane Center www.nhc.noaa.gov/
NOAA Storm Outlook cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/ghaz/gth_full_TConly_ATL.png
Google’s AI storm lab deepmind.google.com/science/weatherlab
Colorado U hurricane seasonal hurricane projection tropical.colostate.edu/forecasting.html
NOAA annual hurricane verification reports www.nhc.noaa.gov/verification/verify3.shtml
General information
NOAA weather model descriptions www.nhc.noaa.gov/modelsummary.shtml
Caribbean Beach Weather beach-weather.com/Caribbean/
Swell Forecast www.swellinfo.com/surf-forecast
A more complete schedule of HF radio nets is available at:
www.docksideradio.com/east_coast.htm
www.qsl.net/j69ds/ham-info-projects/caribbean-nets.html
Selected cruisers VHF nets (local times)
By convention, cruisers use VHF 68 as a hailing channel, except in the French Islands of St. Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique (use VHF 8). After contact, move to a working channel for your traffic. VHF 16 is always an emergency channel and can be used to hail the Coast Guard and commercial traffic. Always be mindful of others on the channel who may have priority.
Local VHF nets are run mostly by volunteers and are subject to their availability and may or may not operate as indicated below.
Nassau, Bahamas, 0715 VHF 14
Luperón, 0900 VHF 72
St. Martin/Maarten 0730 VHF 10 Monday-Saturday
English Harbour, Antigua 0900 VHF 06 Daily
English/Falmouth Harbour, Antigua (Salty Dawg Net, Daily November-December) 0830, VHF 72
Jolly Harbour, Antigua: Monday-Sat 0800 VHF 74
Le Marin/St. Anne, Martinique 0830 VHF 08 Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Rodney Bay, St Lucia 0830 VHF 68 Monday-Saturday
Bequia, St. V & Grenadines: 0800 VHF 68 Monday-Saturday
Grenada 0730 VHF 66 (International) Monday-Saturday
Note: If the 66 repeater is unavailable, listen on Ch. 69 for this net.
Chaguaramas, Trinidad 0800 VHF 68 daily
Curaçao 0745 VHF 72 Monday-Saturday
Bill Woodroffe holds a B.S. degree in meteorology from the maritime college at the State University of New York. He’s sailed as a deck officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine and now explores with his wife aboard their 47’ ketch S/V Kalunamoo throughout the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Reach him at whwsailboat@gmail.com.
