Hurricane Harvey, What impact of climate change ?

In full political news on global climate change, the terrible Hurricane Harvey questioned some scientists about the link between warming due to human activities and intense weather events increasing in recent years.

Source : National Weather Service

Source : National Weather Service

Michael E. Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center and author of three books, including The Hockey Stick and The Climate Wars, Dire Predictions, and The Madhouse Effect, develops a long commentary in theguardian.com (¹) about it, freely translated by myself.

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Météo-France GRIB files finally for free

A year after my advocacy for free European data (¹) Météo-France finally offers free access to its two famous ARPEGE and AROME models. A welcome development, started in 2014 by the success of MyOcean, since then integrated into Mercator Ocean (²), but a notable change of attitude for a public establishment which has always been asked to self-finance a significant part of its budget. Forecasts from these two models are made available on Météo-France portal in the GRIB version 2 format. Since the 21 July 2015.

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Marine electronics manufacturers and the tablet phenomenon

A few days before the opening of the Nautic Paris boat show where, I remind him, I will be present on the stand iTabNav (Hall 2.1 – D31), An overview is in order. And precisely, in our immediate horizon we shall have, like every year, proximity to marine electronics manufacturers and their representatives.

At the previous edition of the boat show, I had noticed the reluctance – not to say hostility – of manufacturers towards the growing phenomenon of tablets and other smartphones on the navigation market. By dint of promoting these devices and their applications, I probably didn't just make friends in this business. However, Strong pressure from boat buyers, and therefore navigation electronics, has forced those manufacturers to integrate a minimum of interactivity between their own hardware and the mobile devices now owned by a majority of browsers.

This prompts me to take a quick look at the status of the applications provided and the progress of the proposed functions.

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Mac Navigation Sets Sails

This year, from February the 20 th until August 10 August, I will test in the Mediterranean Sea several applications in their latest updates. Navionics Marine HD, Nobeltec TimeZero, Imray charting, etc,… All applications widely discussed on this blog tested live. I will speak broadly late August or early September.

Also planned a new iBook complete guide about the application… shhh, We'll talk later at the Grand Pavois boat show. In the meantime, your servant will hardly be reached until September. Happy holidays to all !

PrincedOc

Sail with an iPad on a large classic yacht

Training week-end onboard the 6 and 7 July 2013 " Navigate with an iPad » aboard Owl, a classic ketch gaffer 21 meters high, built in 1909, departure from Agde.

The crew (Skipper + Sailor and hostess) takes care of the manoeuvre, food and cleaning. Cabin linen is provided.

I was on board to give the training on how to use the apps with iPad : iNavX, Weather4D PRO, AyeTides XL mainly. On the program : routes preparation, routing optimization, Optimized route tracking, Refreshing the routing, etc,. A great moment to combine the latest technologies with yachting of great tradition. Read more …

Navigate with an iPad at the Nautic Paris boat show

Already two days past and the dream team was overwhelmed by a huge number of visitors. Don't let this photo fool you : it was taken yesterday evening after closing, whew, A little respite !

Nautic stand D41

An expanded stand this year

On the program of presentations :

  • iPad accessories with exclusive new protection LifeProof received on Friday.
  • Our favorite apps : iNavX and Navionics charting, Weather4D PRO and routing feature, with the exclusive presentation of iPolar for easy creation of speed polars.
  • Demonstration of WiFi connection with networks NMEA 0183 and NMEA2000.

Come see us, iPadNav gives you great prices, you'll be able to see our iPads splashing around in the aquarium and our apps on the new iPad Mini, A must !

It's the holidays !

At sea from July, 20 th until August 3 August, I will use a Mediterranean journey for a report on the use of several devices discussed on this blog :

  • Iridium and Isatphone Pro with Optimizer WXA-102 from Global Marine Network, GRIB file requests with iPad / iPhone.
  • XGate on MacBook Pro with IsatPhone, GRIB file requests with MacENC.
  • Seasmart WiFi and NMEA2000 network with iNavX on iPad / iPhone.

Enough to keep you busy during the ten days of sailing planned between Port-Leucate and Dubrovnik. Hoping that our tests will leave us time to enjoy the sea, few planned stops and some fish have liked to bite our hooks.

There will therefore no more post on this blog before… mid- August, or even early September. But the result of my investigations will be largely developed next autumn.

And as a bonus, but don't say anything to anyone, It's a rumor : a test of the integration of the speed polars into the router function of Weather4D PRO.

Happy sailing to all.