Weather

It's a funny thing, weather......most cruisers long for a decent amount of windspeed then complain when they get more than they bargained for!
I believe, as a long-distance passage maker, that there is no such thing as an accurate forecast - when you are actually out there, past the point of no return, you just have to cop whatever mother nature throws at you - for example, imagine this scenario - you are twelve days into a thirty day passage and out of sight of land by a long way, the barometer starts dropping rapidly, your radar shows dense cloud ahead and the wind is increasing.  What are you going to do? Turn round and run for home? No. Find shelter? Not possible.  No, reef early, batten down, get your wet weather gear on, then your safety gear and go along for the ride or hove to.  Oh yes, and I almost forgot the whole point of this - none of it was forecast by any of the weather sites, grib files, synoptic charts etc....anyway - there is a place for weather forecasting when closer to home but realise that it isn't an exact science by anymeans.
The best advice anyone can give you is to have a good barometer onboard!
Here are our preferred weather sites, in no particular order.

Bloosee, excellent resource

BoM, very helpful

Accuweather, fairly ok

Meteosail, very informative

The Watchers, find out first from this site