What about lightning?
Lightning happens. Good grounding and prudent driving can significantly reduce the risk of damage from lightning. Some sailors advise putting your VHF and GPS in the oven if lightning is close, to shield it from destruction.
Term Image
What about hurricanes?
Our race is carefully set at the beginning of a "weather window" that statistically features pretty good winds for getting across the Pacific and a low incidence, historically, of hurricanes.
What sources can I use for weather data?
Refer first to the NOR and SI's. In general, they are expected to say that you may get data that is freely available on the web, but may not be processed or selected, or annotated for you by somebody on land. This means no weather router once the prep signal is up. And nothing that you have to pay to get the information.
Tsunami Marine Debris
Marine debris has long been a safety concern for sailors and ocean racers, and the 2011 tsunami in Japan caused increased concern over the large amount of debris that was washed out to sea.
Weather Resources
Weather Data Sources:
Main NWS weather page: www.weather.gov/marine
Fax schedules and charts: weather.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml
World-wide fax schedule: www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/rfax.pdf
Grib-files from Saildocs: www.saildocs.com/gribinfo
Ocens WxNet (subscription): www.ocens.com
UGrib: www.grib.us
Seminars:
Lee Chesneau www.marineweatherbylee.com/
(especially note: "Mariner's Guide to the 500mb Chart")
Max Ebb on Squalls
Squall Strategy
Re-printed with permission from Latitude 38, July 1994.
Copyright Max Ebb Publications and Latitude 38, 1994
"What's the event tonight?" I asked the bartender. "I had to drive all the way back to the second overflow parking lot to find a space!"
But the bar was almost empty. Just a few people I didn't recognize buying drinks, and a member serving.
"It's the weather briefing for the race to Hawaii. Standing room only in the dining room."
Offshore weather resources, in a nutshell
Course Outline by Jim Corenman
1. Look Outdoors
a. Calibrated barometer/barograph