For those who are interested to follow my next Tasman crossing, then a website which will be very useful for you is WINDY.COM.
This website shows all sorts of parameters associated with the weather and the ocean.
For an ocean rower the most important things that I look at daily are:
Wind – this has the greatest effect on an ocean rowing boat. If the wind is with you, you make great progress. If it is blowing against you at speeds of anymore than around 10 knots you start getting pushed around, even backwards.
Currents – these are also very important, its hard to row a boat solo, and consistently make ground against a current of more than around 1 knot. If a current is with you and the wind is against you, depending on the shape of your rowing boat the wind will generally override the current. BUT if you use your para anchor wisely you can still make progress into strong winds by using that current to pull the para anchor along.
The secondary things which I look at are:
- Swell
- Rain (Clouds/Thunder storms etc)
- Ocean temperature
- Air temperature
WINDY.COM has all these parameters for you to choose from to display and more.
Just click on the website and take a look for yourself. It is also a forecasting tool, so down the bottom of the screen click the slider arrow and you can not only see the current situation but what will happen up to one week in advance. So when I am out in the Tasman, and you are looking at the GPS tracker and wondering why I am going in a particular direction, or backwards, or very fast towards New Zealand take a look at WINDY.COM as it will tell you more to the story!
Cheers,
Captain Axe.
Grant 'Axe' Rawlinson 
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