The weather – I check it several times daily, even more when sailing or planning on it. Mostly for day sailing, not long distance passage making or anything. I commute by ferry, so I get a good chance to compare forecast versus actual almost daily crossing the sound.
My two usual go-to sites are Weather Underground and the NOAA Marine Forecast. Between the two, I can have a good idea of what’s going on. NOAA seems to usually be more worst case (but usually reliable) and Weather Underground seems a pretty solid resource for general conditions. I’ve found that in general, more than three days out, the forecast is not very reliable.
For wind, I’ll check Weather Underground and NOAA, but also go to Sail Flow and the Washington State Ferry wind page. The Washington State ferry page takes data directly from travelling ferries.
I’ve found this site recently that seems really interesting. It’s called WindyTy. You can do an internet search to find out more about it.
The home screen is the Earth, very basic – no ads!
Zooming in (if you have GPS enabled on your smart phone, you can zoom in directly to where you are)…
Clicking on your location will bring up a weather forecast, and even live web cam views…
Going back to the map, you can filter the display for all sorts of parameters, including wave info…
I can only imagine what resources will be available to sailor’s fingertips even a few years from now.
BackWinded 