Hello all, we are headed north on the Tenn Tom and I wanted to share three sources of marine weather information that were exceptional as we traveled from Clearwater to Mobile. All are part of NOAA National Marine Weather Service and the exceptional part is that you can speak directly with a forecaster. Believe it or not they are available 24/7 and they welcome phone calls. They update their weather models at 4:00 AM and 4:00 PM. The numbers I used are Tampa 813-645-2323, Tallahassee 850-942-8833, and Mobile 251-633-6443. Ask to speak to a forecaster. Each has geographic responsibility and you can see it at www.srh.noaa.gov. Click on the map segments under marine weather. This time we crossed the Gulf and reached the Tenn Tom by traveling from Clearwater to Yankee Town, to Steinhatchee, to Carabelle and finally across Mobile Bay. For each of these runs I typically talked with them about wind speed, wind direction, wave height and wave period. The big difference between reading it on the NOAA site and talking with a forecaster was their willingness to focus on a precise area and provide more details. For example, wave height is normally forecast for 20 miles out and 60 miles out. We were rarely more than 20 miles out and much of the time we were able to stay less than 15 miles out. Often the conditions at this distance were considerably different from the 20 mile forecast. This made for easier decisions on border line days. Their forecasts were reasonably accurate an amazingly high percentage of the time. Hope you get a chance to use them. They are knowledgeable and have a good attitude. Finding both together is rare. Wayne Prichard MV Segue, 84 Californian 43 Knoxville, TN Now at anchor Old Lock 100