A Long Wait?

I'm pretty well settled in Dover. Got a good night's sleep after traveling and seem to be adjusting well to the time change (we are six hours ahead of CDT). I swam this morning and the water temp felt fine and I felt good, so that means my taper is having the desired effect.

Now we wait for the winds over the English Channel to die down a little. I talked to my pilot this morning, and he said the earliest I could swim is Saturday, although I think that is just because he doesn't trust the weather forecast more than three days out, not because Saturday looks promising. I read one wind forecast that indicated things could get a little better on Sunday, but I don't think that's very reliable four days out.

For Channel swimming, most around here seem to trust the government weather office most of all (the Met Office, similar to NOAA). If you are fascinated by weather forecasts, below are the sites I'm looking at while patiently waiting in Dover. I pretty much need the wind to be below 13 mph, or 15 mph tops, before my pilot will say "let's go." These sites often use the "Beaufort Scale" (scroll down at that link for a nice chart) for wind speed, on which 1 and 2 are great for swimming the Channel (and rare in the English Channel), 3 is good, 4 is questionable, and 5 and above are certainly a "no go."

Wind forecast.

Inshore marine forecast.

Marine shipping forecast.

Extended marine forecast. On this last one, we are right between Cullercoats and Niton, so read them both and see if they refer to the Dover area or the eastern English Channel.
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