Sailing Catalpa · video

What this video covers

Sailing Catalpa departs El Salvador after a five-month stay, bound for Bahía del Coco, Costa Rica — a passage PredictWind estimates at three days and eleven hours with mostly light air.13:30

The video centers on Lee's step-by-step passage-planning process using PredictWind's professional subscription. He walks through selecting the ECMWF model, running the routing tool with a no-motoring preference, reading the passage summary (76% reaching, 17% upwind, 100% of the time in 1–1.2 m seas), and exporting a GPX file to the Raymarine Axiom chartplotter.9:56 Key hazards on the route are the Papagayo winds and residual Tehuantepec swell; Lee explains how swell period matters — eight-second swell at height is uncomfortable, 17-second swell at one meter is comfortable — and flags thunderstorm activity as the main concern.11:53 He also describes a newly installed PredictWind data hub that feeds boat-specific polar data back to PredictWind's AI to improve future routing accuracy.15:22

Bar crossing at the El Salvador river entrance requires high tide and flat swell; Lee scouts the outbound track in the dinghy using Navionics before departure.0:38 Checkout formalities include visiting the navy base to pay a $1-per-day permit fee for the days beyond the initial 30 paid on arrival, then clearing immigration at the marina.1:34

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