Internet - czy da się bez niego?

Internet - with or without it?

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with friends about the planning and preparation for this cruise. Most of the people I talk to are curious and ask about the details, the route plan, and the expected weather. But some want to suggest, give good advice, and help at least with one word. I always very willingly thank you for every advice. But as it usually happens in life: as many people as many opinions. And some of this advice is... not very useful, or not useful at all. Unfortunately, they only increase tension, stress, and fears but also encourage me, in a way that is no longer necessary, to check again and make sure that we have everything checked and prepared. What could be agreed upon a week before the cruise, we have already agreed. What we could have discussed, we have discussed. Now it remains to wait, and we can slowly start to look at the forecasts, sea conditions, etc.

And today a little bit about how:

For navigation, we will use Navionics and Savvy Navy. I personally recommend the latter, I think it's a very good app, it's got super responsive support and everything is up to date. Both programs are used to determine our position, plan the route with individual stops, and pay attention to shallow water. They also determine how many NM are behind us and how many NM are left to sail. But, they determine this based on planning algorithms. Reality is sometimes different. And to make the uncertainty "how many NM ahead" as small as possible, as predictable as possible, you also need weather data.

To get an idea of the weather forecasts, we will use the WINDY and PredictWind applications. Here again, I recommend ‘the latter’. It is a very sophisticated application, with many weather models, updated every 4 hours. It can set a so-called "boat polar",  to input boat data into the planning model to make it more accurate and use algorithms to the best predictable extent. I will try to persuade Viki to write a few sentences about weather forecasting, lows, highs, and planning rules sometimes. After all, I have a present for him, he will not be right to refuse...

Both these programs will certainly contribute significantly to changing the unknown "how many NM before us", but also whether we will visit Madeira, or maybe Lanzarote, or maybe La Palme. Yes - the weather will determine where we stand, how many miles we sail, and how long it takes.
To navigate, observe, and pay attention to vessels, use the Marine Traffic app. It displays most vessels and, thanks to this, we can also plan our route, stop or turn. Because water traffic has its own rules, just like road traffic. The regulations cover a lot of things, from lights, signs, and regulations to rules that must be known and obeyed without fail.

These are the little basics, something that has to be, and which will allow us to plan much more safely, but also more efficiently.

And an interesting fact: each of these applications is useful when it has up-to-date data. To keep the data up to date, you need the Internet. The internet works where there is a connection--and there isn't one on the water. But there is Starlink, and there is inReach.

About this, as well as about safety equipment, provisions, and finally the crew: in the next episode, in a few days...

To be continued...