Chris Parker has almost god-like control over many cruising captains. He reliably provides weather forecasting and routing services for a nominal fee. Anytime a group of captains get together and discuss the weather forecasts, the phrase "Chris Parker says ..." will always come up.

Nicki and I don't subscribe to his services, nor do we let Chris choose our departure dates and routes. But, we've heard his forecasts (second hand) enough to know that Chris knows the weather as well as any human can know weather.

He gave a brief seminar on planning your trip and the most common mistakes.

1) When the weather is bad, get prepared for departure. Don't wait until the weather is good to start preparing, because you'll likely miss your weather window.
2) Watch the forecasts for many days before departure to identify trends and determine if the forecasters have been correct. If the forecasts have been off in recent days, they are likely to also be wrong on the day that you planned to leave. On the day of departure, confirm that the forecast matches the current weather conditions.
3) Being a goal oriented cruising captain is not necessarily a good thing. Be flexible with your departure date and/or your destination to take advantage of the forecast.
4) Don't let your optimism cloud the facts. Sometimes cruisers will check several forecasts and discard the forecasts that are not favorable to them. The comfortable cruiser will recognize when multiple forecasts conflict and delay or proceed with caution.
5) An airline pilot does not care how much runway is behind him, just what is in front. The weather that you experienced in the past is not a predictor of your future weather.