Introduction

CROSS Broadcasts

French inshore waters forecasts (similar to those broadcast by HMCG on VHF) - prévisions or bulletins cotières et peches - are broadcast on marine VHF channels at times to be found in MacMillans Almanac, RYA G5 and  le Guide Marine de Météo France  (free from most French marinas) and also available online.  The Météo France booklet is likely to be the most up to date version.

CROSS broadcast three times a day generally (and five times a day from the CROSS Corsen satellite stations during the period 1 May to 30 September). Forecasts are often repeated, sometimes phrase by phrase and sometimes as a whole. They are generally read out reasonably slowly and clearly so as to be understandable by anyone with a modicum of French. Even non French speakers can get a good deal from this service.

In my experience, CROSS Etel is usually very good, very slow and clear. Corsen and Joburg are not quite as slow but usually understandable.   Sous-CROSS Soulac can be a little fast.   Possibly, also, there is a problem with the a local accent, I am not sure.  When I last heard it, Gris-Nez was very fast, probably too fast unless you really are used to following the broadcasts. But, even here, practice pays dividends.

In the Western Mediterranean in 2001 and 2003, CROSSMED broadcasts

In Northern and Western France, the morning and early afternoon forecasts are for today (aujourd'hui or la journée de ...), tonight (la nuit de ...) and an outlook (tendance ultérieure or évolution pour...) which may be for just one day or can be for several days ahead. The evening forecast is a new forecast and covers tonight (la nuit prochaine), tomorrow (le jour de ....) and an outlook.

In the Western Med, morning and midday forecasts cover today/tonight and tomorrow, separately,  in reasonable detail. This is followed by "phenomenon important" normally for a two further days. The evening forecast gives tonight, tomorrow and the following day again followed by "phenomenon important".

Some French marinas display transcripts of the morning broadcasts. These transcripts are a useful way of checking on your ability to understand the broadcasts.

Before sailing in an area it is useful to view texts of French (and Spanish) forecasts  by going to my  GMDSS page  These hyperlinks to the CROSS texts are commendably fast with no frills or adverts on the pages. However, the   links from le guide marine de Météo France  are very slow over a cell phone..   Anyone wanting to access texts from the Météo France site  over a cell or mobile phone should consider using a text retrieval system.

**     NOTE  I have never heard CROSS use these descriptive terms eg Jolie Brise

***    NOTE CROSS issue warnings of Fog as well as strong winds.