Hi Jon,

"Heading out around Cabo Gracia y Dios, all they'd have to do is listen to Chris Parker's WX broadcast, nobody makes a move until he says it's a Go, after all... Once given the green light by Chris, everyone heads for the same waypoints - probably using routes created on MaxSea of something days in advance, and running with autopilot interfaced to the route to ensure they don't deviate by more than a few meters"

"There were a lot fewer boats in the anchorage that night, after Chris Parker had given the fleet the green light that morning..."

But I'm sure you just meant some

Just having fun with you Jon. Your morning routine sounds just like mine (except my coffee seems to always kick in just as Chris is getting to something important for my plans, so my morning involves a lot of dancing about shouting "hurry up, hurry up"). Like you, we laugh at the callers that need a complete window forecast to go from Big Majors to Staniel with sea state and cloud coverage. Then roll on the floor when that person is followed up by someone needing a window from Sampson to Big Majors. Last year when Parker was in Georgetown (no forecast that week, so nobody moves an inch) a front came through with 20kt West winds for about an hour. As soon as it hit, a screaming terrified female voice came on the VHF shouting "somebody get Chris to do something, we are getting beat up pretty bad out here".

In fact, we subscribed this year (I know..., but you also wouldn't like our boat). Our plans were to spend the winter in the Raggeds and head to Grenada and we thought having routing advice to get East from there would be helpful. Turns out the strange strong Westerly weather this year made the trip easy (made the Raggeds somewhat challenging). We jumped on a the back of a whopper cold front and had a 4 day NW 20kt broad reach all the way to Puerto Rico and light SW winds since then.

And there are people with giant cajones using his service - did you listen to the boat SHIVER? He left Beaufort in January in a full gale headed for the Bahamas. Chris did his usual trying to talk him out of it without saying so ("well, if you LIKE cold temps and LIKE beating, and LIKE gale force winds, and LIKE giant seas...). Actual air temps were MINUS 10*F with a 30-35kt gradient and higher gusts, and seas to match. The guy on SHIVER (sounds British) replies calmly "sounds like a jolly stiff one, we will leave this morning".

That's the kind of man I pictured you as...

Mark