This is a pre-passage source and decision desk, not a current forecast or clearance to depart. The map is centred approximately on the area, not on your route or a forecast-zone boundary.
On a tidal Atlantic coast, the forecast wind is only one input. Check swell direction and period, tidal stream and the specific harbour or bar approach from current local publications.
1. Primary sources
Open current bulletins and warnings for every sea area on the route. These links are starting points, not a promise that each covers the whole location; if unsure, identify the issuer through WMO–IMO.
2. Route and local effects
Open-west-coast exposure differs from the forecast inside a sea loch or harbour.
West-coast Ireland or Scotland can move quickly from an Atlantic swell approach into a sheltered sea loch.
Use the responsible national marine area for each leg; inspect swell and the entrance rather than applying a sea-loch observation to the offshore approach.
How to use this source set
Start with the warning, then the marine text for the exact named area. If the route crosses a zone boundary, obtain both bulletins. Note issue and valid times, wind units and the meaning of wave height. Where a link opens an agency portal, navigate to its current marine product; a homepage is not itself a forecast.
Compare with an exposed station or buoy if available. Check its position and observation time: a sheltered station does not overturn a warning for an open channel. If a bulletin is missing or stale, identify the issuing service via WMO–IMO and defer the decision until current information is available.
Before-passage check
- Mark departure, exposed legs, arrival and feasible diversions; find the responsible named marine areas for each.
- Check warnings, issue and valid times; assess conditions when you expect to reach each leg, not only at departure.
- Compare wind and gusts, waves and swell, visibility, thunderstorms and local effects; do not infer a strait from a sheltered harbour.
- Compare recent observations where available, noting their time and exposure; a mismatch calls for another check.
- Set the next bulletin check, a reassessment trigger, an alternative and a backup communication channel.
Model map — optional
Windy is a third-party model display, not the issuer of official warnings. Choose a layer and check its valid hour and model run. Nothing loads until you click.
Without JavaScript, open the map separately.
If connectivity fails
Before departure, save the current official text bulletin and warning with issue time. Arrange another way to receive updates, such as an appropriate coastal broadcast, NAVTEX or satellite channel. A saved map cannot replace new warnings.
How to choose weather tools · All sailing areas
Scope: Source list assembled 25 September 2026; check its freshness and coverage before use. This public area guide is not a current personalised forecast, navigational notice service or safety verdict. Personalised forecasts with AI and experts are in closed testing; public booking is not open. The skipper makes the decision.
The loch is not the Atlantic approach
For west-coast Scotland or Atlantic Ireland, separate the exposed coast, any headland and the final loch or bay entrance. Met Office and Met Éireann cover different parts of this broad region; choose by the actual leg. A sheltered inland or harbour observation may be useful for departure but cannot validate open-west-coast swell. Mark the direction from which the destination can receive sea, not simply its distance from the next cape.
- Met Office inshore waters — Named British coastal sectors, marine strong-wind warnings and sea state.
- Met Éireann Sea Area Forecast — Irish coastal/sea-area text, small-craft and gale warnings; inspect time conventions.
Watch the sea trend as well as the wind trend
Compare exposed buoy or coastal evidence with the latest swell and wave forecast. The Irish buoy service labels observation time and missing data; a stale record must not fill a current offshore gap. For a tide-sensitive headland, add locally applicable stream information independently. A weakening wind in the loch can coexist with difficult offshore motion, especially when the yacht's heading brings the swell across rather than along the boat.
- Met Éireann buoy observations — Marine observations with locations and GMT timestamps; data gaps are not calm conditions.
- Met Office inshore waters
Keep the daylight refuge genuinely reachable
Test slower progress and a delayed approach against daylight, crew endurance and the actual entrance information. Reassess before the exposed headland if the weather timing changes or the destination no longer offers the intended shelter. A tempting sea loch on a chart is not a pre-validated refuge; current access, anchoring conditions and navigation information still matter. Preserve the waiting option before the commitment point rather than inventing a guaranteed retreat.
- Met Office inshore waters
- Met Éireann Sea Area Forecast
- RYA passage planning — Practitioner guidance on contingency, tides, vessel and crew constraints.
Editorial review of this material: 27 September 2026. This date concerns the page content; check current forecast issue times and validity at the original sources.
- United Kingdom
Combine named inshore sectors, the Shipping Forecast and local tidal/harbour information.