Weather Window

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding when to leave. Per the schedule that has been laid out, it will take close to two days to get to the the Ocracoke Inlet, our gateway to the Atlantic. Although it might be OK in the bay, the ocean wind and waves are a whole other story. I use a few weather sites to help make these decisions. One is, http://windmapper.com/. It shows the winds down the coast for up to a week out and has been very accurate. For everything else, I use the NOAA site, http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/midatlantic.php, to see whats going on as far as wave heights, precipitation and tides. They too are about as accurate as you can get.

So the initial planning was to leave on Monday, November 30. If you look at the attached wind chart, you can see that Monday and Tuesday's forecasted wind is not too bad. We would be in the Pamlico River and Sound during that time. But if you figure that on Wednesday, we would leave the Ocracoke Inlet, you can see things dramatically pick up with forecasted winds over 40 miles an hour. That's way too much wind to be rounding the Capes. So we will continue to watch the weather and hopefully nail something down in the next week or so.