I hope you find our site interesting, informative and fun to browse. If you take the time browse, you'll see that it goes way beyond being just another sailing web site. It is actually a very useful tool for exploring advanced coastal and offshore concepts and resources... and without even getting wet! Our primary business and service is weather routing. We no longer offer offshore sailing instruction or deliveries. The site is loaded with great, digital color photographs taken during some of our offshore passages. You will find navigational charts, current marine weather forecasts and images, tropical storm advisories, color satellite images of the Gulf Stream, NDBC bouy reports and lots of good articals on HF SSB. Our "Resources" page has over 200 hyperlinks to other offshore related web sites useful to the offshore sailor. Enjoy!
To explore the site, click on any of the hyperlinks beneath the Ocean-Pro banner, at the top of every page. Or click on the same series of hyperlinks described below. Your browser's "back" button will also take you back to a prior page. If you wander off the site, we hope you find your way back. Save the bookmark now!. Several pages of the site have large, high-resolution images. They are high quality and worth waiting for but will download slowly. Depending on your modem speed expect the image intensive pages to load in up to a few minutes. Many of the site pages are long, (extend down off the screen), so be sure to page down. If you have questions or suggestions feel free to call or email. See the contact info below. You can email us instantly from any page of the site.
NEW!...FCC licensed "Private Marine Coast Station": Beginning April 2005, we obtained a license to operate a Private Marine Coast radio station to provide weather forecasts, routing, Gulf Stream and mid ocean current information, etc. The station is co-located with our weather office in Naples, Florida. The station operates two 150 watt SSB tranceivers on the 6, 8, 12, 16 and 18 mhz marine bands and uses six broadly directional antennas. See Custom Weather & Gulf Stream Routing via SSB. In addition, Bob has been a licensed ham operator for 50 years, His callsign for is K9KKY. He is an active participant in the various marine nets such as the well known, Maritime Mobile Service Net.
NEW!...Custom Weather and Gulf Stream Routing Beginning in October of 2002 we added offshore "weather analysis and routing" and "Gulf Stream analysis and routing" to the services we offer. "Routing", whether it involves the weather or the Gulf Stream, or both, involves analysing the present and forecasts and images and or the Gulf Stream currents and eddies, and carefully determining and plotting the best departure weather window, and or the best or fastest sailing route over the next 3-5 days or more. Even if you are already able to receive weather forecasts and or images onboard, that having a weather router can make all the difference in the care and prudence of your decisions and in the quality and speed of your passage.
NEW!...Check out our "Resources & links" page...We have a phenomenal array of over 200 powerful internet hyperlinks on our "Resources" page. It includes Caribbean and Central America travel information and maps, travel and airline sites, boat manufactures, dealers, brokers and charter companies, marine surveyors and transport companies, offshore weather, tides and oceanographic sites, offshore communications sites, sources for nautical books, charts and software, online resources, forums and sailing "supersites", the ASA and US Sailing schools, and offshore passage crewing opportunities. Did we miss anything? Let us know!
* (Home) is Ocean-Pro's home page.
* (Site Index) this page
* (Mission) describes our instructional philosophy, how it has changed over the years. and what I see as our instructional mission. It is certainly what I have tried to represent and accomplish with this web site.
* (Instruction) No longer offered. Ocean-Pro's prior advanced coastal and offshore instructional program. Our well planned, long distance, instructional deliveries are the best and safest way to gain real world, coastal and offshore experience. The page details what our student crews can expect to learn and practice on a typical 10-14 day passage.
* (Deliveries) No longer offered. Describes Ocean-Pro's prior unique "instructional delivery" program, and explains how it is valuable to students and yet cost saving to vessel owners. It describes the kinds of vessels most suitable for instructional deliveries, and the steps we take in our vessel inspection, preparation and care process. An Ocean-Pro "instructional delivery" can cost the vessel owner much less a conventional delivery.
* (Caribbean) provides many full size, digital, marine maps and charts of the Caribbean and North America. All maps and charts can be enlarged to much larger than full screen. The Caribbean map covers from Florida and Cuba to the Virgins, Leewards and Windwards, to Trinidad and the north coast of South America, (Venezuela and Columbia), to all of Central America, (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, the San Blas Islands, Belize, and Mexico. North America is represented by numerous actual NOAA marine charts, digitized by Maptech, Inc. Clicking on any of the maps or charts will load a full size image of the chart for detailed viewing. The NOAA marine charts cover the US East coast from Nova Scotia to Mexico, plus the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. If you would like to see more NOAA charts, see our hyperlinks to several sources for online charts on the Resources page.
* (Passages) is an eye catching and informative glimpse into each one of a dozen different instructional deliveries we conducted. Each includes a capsule of vessel information and a miniature chart of the actual voyage. Each passage description is hyperlinked to a separate page with dozens of high quality, color, photos of the boat, the crew and the colorful tropical islands along the route.
* (Weather) provides sample and "real-time" weather information, the actual information an offshore sailor needs to be familiar with and have daily access to, especially offshore. Included are sample and "real time" USCG "Marine Offshore Forecasts", satellite images, and synoptic charts for the North Atlantic and Caribbean. Offshore we receive these images via HF SSB weather-fax and HF SSB email. We use these forecasts and images daily to anticipate the weather 2 to 6 days ahead and plan or alter our route appropriately. Developing good weather skills is an essential ingredient for every serious coastal and offshore sailor and a key ingredient in Ocean-Pro's instructional program.
* (Tropical) provides sample and "real-time" tropical storm information, again, the actual information an offshore sailor needs to be familiar with and have daily access to. The official Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season, runs from June 1st through November 31st. Included are sample and "real-time" NHC "Tropical Storm Advisories", satellite images and synoptic charts for the North Atlantic and Caribbean.. You will find a table of typical hurricane frequency by month, a plot of typical hurricane tracks through the Caribbean, and hurricane tracks and images from three past and prominent hurricanes, Hurricane Andrew, 1992, Hurricane Erin, 1995, and Hurricane Georges, 1998. We were aboard ship, engaged in Ocean-Pro instructional passages, and directly in the direct paths of Hurricanes Andrew and Erin. We were well prepared and dealt successfully with both hurricanes. See (Passages) or ask Captain Bob for highlights over a "cold one".
* (Gulf Stream) provides sample Gulf Stream images, the images we use for planning passages whether we are crossing, following, or avoiding the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream runs at from 2-6 knots and can have a major impact on the sea height, apparent wind speed and the vessel's course and speed over the ground. We access Gulf Stream images and cordinates by HF SSB when offshore. To see a sampling of the images we used during a recent 1,000 nm Gulf Stream passage, from Florida to Massachusettes, see Passages - (Wasabi) or (Horizons)
* (Bouy data) We recently added this page. It contains NBDC weather bouy information. The page includes sample and real time weather bouy reports showing wind and sea state at the various bouys, located off the US East coast from Nova Scotia to Texas and in the Caribbean. The bouys are maintained by the NBDC, (National Bouy Data Center). The NBDC maintains many telemetry equipped weather and sea state bouys around the world.
* (Compare) describes the differences between bareboat chartering, extended coastal cruising and long distance offshore cruising. We hope it makes more clear the differences in the types of boats, the amount of equipment required, and the skill sets required, of the captains and crews engaged in each.
* (Qualify) No longer offered. Describes the sailing experience, aptitudes and goals, I look for in students I consider for joining an Ocean-Pro instructional delivery. It also discusses costs, typical expenses, the application procedure, and what we recommend one pack for a typical 10-14 day offshore passage in the US or Caribbean.
* (Contact) is our contact information. Our base of operations is in Naples, Florida. You can contact us by phone, fax, conventional email, or offshore by HF SSB voice or email, and of course conventional mail.
* (Capt Bob) gives you a brief bio for our president and chief instructor, Bob Cook. He began sailing as a small boy, in Wisconsin, in the early 60's. In the 40 years since, he has raced, cruised and taught day-sailing, coastal and offshore sailing, accumulating well over 100,000 adventure-filled sea miles.
* "Download" (not yet available), will be a place to view, print or download our frequently used documents. The documents will be in MS Word 97 (.doc), or Acrobat (.pdf) format. Here you will be able to access: 1. our sailing resume form, 2. a description of Ocean-Pro's instructional program for prospective students, 3. a description of Ocean-Pro's delivery program for vessel owners contemplating a delivery, etc.
* "Ship's store" (not yet available), will be a convenient place to find information on and select coastal and offshore books, charts, gear and equipment, as well as Offshore Sail's specialized offshore navigational logbook, wind calculator, and other training materials.
* (Resources) will take you to Ocean-Pro's powerful links page with over 200 categorized links. You are just a "click" away from Caribbean island info and maps, coastal and offshore weather forecasts. You will find study resources (books, charts & software), boat and equipment resources, sailing "Super-sites", charter companies, yacht brokers, surveyors, sailing magazine, cruising organizations, user groups, sailing schools and sailing associations. And there are specialized sites for Gulf Stream images, bouy reports, tidal info, and information on marine communications, (cellular, H.F. SSB and satellite). A new resource we have found is a web source for viewing NOAA charts for the US and Northwest Caribbean online. We have included a link to the site on our "Resources" page. See "NOAA Charts". We are adding to this page constantly.
To suggest additional content for our site, or links for our "resources" page, just send us an email.
Fair wind and big seas,
Bob
Copyright June 2000: Ocean-pro: Gulf Wind Yachting, Inc. Webmaster: Bob Cook