Boating is more affected by weather than almost any other recreational activity. Regardless of your purpose for boating, whether fishing, sailing, long-distance cruising, or just spending a day on the water, taking your boat out means monitoring the weather to ensure safe conditions. SiriusXM Marine Weather can help.Traditionally, boaters listened to the marine weather on the VHF radio before departing, and would hope that the forecasters were correct in their predictions. Today, weather information available on smart phones and tablets has improved access to more detailed forecasts. With an internet connection or cellular service, the current weather information is readily available however, once you're beyond reach of those connections, you're back to trusting that the conditions will remain as forecasted.SiriusXM saw this as an opportunity. What if they could use their satellite network capabilities to deliver weather information to boaters, even when they are hundreds of miles offshore. SiriusXM Marine is now in its 12th year of service, and with the exception of high-cost VSAT broadband service or the limited information available over single sideband radio, has been reliably providing weather information and forecasts to boaters beyond the limits of any other source. For over 12 years, SiriusXM Marine has been reliably providing weather information and forecasts to boaters beyond the limits of any other source.
SiriusXM has partnered with several reputable marine electronics companies, including Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine and the Navico systems under the Lowrance, Simrad and B&G brands. Utilizing weather receivers and antennas from these companies and SiriusXM Marine Weather service, boaters can now access a wide variety of marine weather information, which is sent directly to a boat's chartplotter or multi-function display screen. Details such as wind speed and direction, wave height and direction, radar, storm tracking and lightning activity are some of the elements recorded. Coastal marine forecasts from U.S. and Canadian weather agencies, sea-buoy reports, sea-surface temperatures and more in other words, all the information a boater might need to make conscious weather- related decisions is synthesized by SiriusXM Marine into packages delivered directly to your vessel's onboard electronics.
Each marine electronics company designs their own interface, allowing boaters to use the familiar features within their own helm systems to access the weather information. While some of the electronics companies have enhanced the service with information unique to their systems, all provide the same data available from SiriusXM Marine.By placing live animated radar loops directly on the vessel's navigation screen, boaters can spot weather patterns moving in their direction and have time to avoid or prepare for them. This information also includes storm-cell attributes that detail the speed and direction of a storm cell. One of the most valuable features of SiriusXM Marine is the lightning report feature. By setting up a guard zone around the boat, a boater can be informed if lightning exists within a preset distance from the vessel.
Wind and wave predictions are displayed in graphic representations on the helm screen, with not only wave height but wave direction as well. Weather buoy data is also available from all reporting buoys, giving boaters a picture of the real-time of conditions around them.
Not all boaters are dealing with the same terrain. To address this, SiriusXM Marine offers three separate packages: Marine Inland, which features the most important localized weather information for fresh water boaters; Marine Coastal, which includes any info you might need while cruising coastal waters, including the Great Lakes; and Marine Offshore, which is a comprehensive set of weather data for cruisers who are going farther afield.
Subscriptions to the packages are flexible, to meet the needs of seasonal boaters. The customer care department is also staffed with personnel specifically knowledgeable in the marine industry.
If your boating takes you out of range of mobile or land-based internet connections, or if you want up-to-the- minute, real-time weather data while out on the water, SiriusXM Marine may be your best solution.
Stay up to date with the latest articles, news and all things boating with a FREE subscription to Marinalife Magazine!