Having the Iridium GO! and hooking up to the Predict Wind app gives us access to weather information that we only dreamed about a few years ago. Every 12 hours an updated GRIB and Modified (by PW) GRIB forecast is available in animated graphics and data formats. Comparing this with GRIB data that the Sailmail grib reader also displays via a separate download has given us a very accurate forecast for the last two years. On this voyage, apart from some small anomalies mid ocean, the forecast 12 and 24 hours out has proven very accurate. 5 Days out has been very good. And, we are using it with confidence to make routing decisions 10 days out. Take tomorrow, well that would be today now since I've got the Dog Watch,,,,take today for instance. We have known that we would be experiencing some more intense weather for a week now. Today is the day it will begin. Our downloaded data shows the wind and seas increasing rapidly after dark this evening. Wind from 10 increasing to 20 and seas from 1 meter to maybe 3 meters briefly. The sea forecasts we have less confidence in and believe it will be less. Today's sailing will be benign just like the last week has been. Wonderful sailing on a port tack the entire time with steady predictable wind, sunny days and bright star lit nights. One could be lulled into thinking this would last forever, become complacent, and then surprised by a change as large as we are now expecting. This would not be a pleasant surprise. Because of our forecast late afternoon or clouds on the horizon, which ever comes first, we will be shortening the main sail to a double reef and battening down for what maybe the next week. Once we enter the influence of the large high pressure system, (on the chart it looks exactly like a Northern Hemisphere Low system) we will be in it for about a week ...sailing fast with 20 knots aft of the beam. We may have to abandon our shorts and t-shirts for foul weather gear. However we will be able to replenish our supply of butter soon.

151 nm yesterday in light easterly winds