"tom" wrote in message
oups.com...
So, 30 miles past Cape May, I turned around in winds reaching for
30 knots and gusting well over,
I check the buoy data for Cape May area, there was no 30 knot winds,
max was 20 with 6 ft seas,
so reality check: maybe it was 30 knot gust, and it was apparent wind.
The 10-15 doesn't include gusts and definitely doesn't include your
apparent wind.

Isolated storms not withstanding, NOAA does a pretty good job.
Last year I record the weather for the SE coast from Nov 5-Jan 5,
forecasts may have had the wind
direction off by up to 45 degrees and the strength off by 5 knots, but
other than that they were correct.

Sea stories are like fish stories....wind and waves get bigger every
time the story is told.
Tom


Ya, it's not like the winds 30 or 50 feet above the surface are stronger
than those *at* the surface. Oh, wait -- they usually are, aren't they?