Under the weather

We didn't get much of anything done on the boat last weekend. Friday it was pouring rain, so I made a trip to the vet with Dixie and Tex for their annual exams and vaccinations. I can rest easy for another year without worrying one of them will go rabid and rip my neck open while I'm sleeping -- probably.

Friday night we decided to try an art class with some of Mary's friends.

The subject matter of the painting was a little dull, but thankfully the class was BYOW and after a few glasses I really hit my stride and added Tex to the painting. I would have added Dixie as well, but I was out of brown paint.

It was still pouring rain when we went to bed Friday night, and the forecast claimed it was going to continue into Saturday, which was why Mary got stuck sitting through two-hour meeting of the Texas Photographic Collectors Association (TPCA) with me. One of the guys did a presentation on the history of Kodak Bantam cameras and 828 film. I could tell she was bored out of her mind, but she was a good sport.

It was almost 2 p.m. before we made it to the marina, and the weatherman had obviously lied. It had not continued to rain, and there was not a cloud in the sky. We could have left early Saturday morning and been anchored out overnight if we'd planned correctly.

I usually rely on the Weather Underground app when I'm looking for a reliable forecast. I used to check three or four places until I realized that most apps -- including Sea Tow and Yahoo! Weather -- are just pulling their forecast data from Weather Underground.

I still use the Sea Tow app for it's tide data. Unfortunately, I've never found the perfect weather app that puts the forecast, wind speeds, radar and tides all together in one nice package.

This weekend we once again relied on Weather Underground, and while their forecast of no rain held up, their forecast of wind speed did not. We expected 10 knot winds all night and got beat up with gusting 30 knot winds.

What's the most reliable weather source for sailing?