Good day, Greetings from Seattle.

To receive ship reports of weather and sea state observations within the 
past 6 hours from within 300 nautical miles of your location, send an email to 

		shipreports@starpath.com

with your location given in the SUBJECT LINE of the mail in the following
format.

		37.1N, 135.4W

To get a successful response, the subject must be in that format precisely.
That is, it must be: a latitude in decimal degrees followed by N or S
then a comma then your longitude in decimal degrees followed by E or W

If you do not get a response in 5 minutes or so, compare your subject line with
what is shown above.  Also check your spam and junk mail folders.

( These are decimal degrees, i.e. 47° 30' = 47.50 )

When we receive a valid location in this proper form, you will receive a 
return email with the report. It is returned promptly, but the delivery time 
back to you will depend on your mail service. If you need to alert spam 
filters, note it will be coming from shipreports@starpath.com.

As a safeguard, only five notices will be sent to any given email address
within a 1 hour period.

               =========== ABBREVIATIONS ==================

ID      We show only SHIPs.
T       S = ship
TIME    hhmm in UTC (same as GMT)
---------
LAT	Latitude in decimal degrees (N is +, S is -)
LON	Longitude in decimal degrees (E is +, W is -)
DIST	Distance (nautical miles), between the search location and reporting ship
HDG	True from the search location to the reporting ship.
---------
WDIR	True Wind direction (True)
WSPD	True Wind speed (kts). Rounded to 10 degrees
GST	Gust speed (kts)
WVHT	Significant wave height (feet) of the combined seas
DPD	Dominant wave period (seconds) is the period with the maximum wave energy.
APD	Average wave period (seconds) of all waves during the 20-minute period.
MWD	Mean wave direction of the dominant wave pattern.
PRES	Sea level pressure (inches of mercury). hPa = mb = 33.86 x (inches of mercury).
PTDY	Pressure Tendency pressure change in the past 3 hr (inches of mercury)
ATMP	Air temperature (deg F).
WTMP	Sea surface temperature (deg F).
DEWP	Dewpoint temperature (deg F)
VIS	Visibility (nautical miles).
TCC	Total cloud cover (eighths) of all cloud types
TIDE	The water level in feet above or below Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW).
S1HT	Height (feet) of primary swell waves. 
S1PD	Period (seconds) of primary swell waves.
S1DIR	True direction primary swells come from.
S2HT	Height (feet) of the secondary swell waves. 
S2PD	Period (seconds) of secondary swell waves.
S2DIR	True direction secondary swells come from.
        
               =========== GPX file attachment (a few kB) ==============
               
A GPX file is attached to the text reports returned to you. This file converts the text 
reports into waypoints at the locations of the ship reports, with wind, pressure, and sea
state included in the waypoint description. This file can be imported into most echart 
navigation programs so the ship reports can be compared with the latest model forecasts. 
In these descriptions the pressures and pressure tendencies have been converted to mb.

This relay to you of data from the US National Data Buoy Center is provided with the 
compliments of Starpath School of Navigation (www.starpath.com) in Seattle, WA.

To receive this Help file, send an email to shipreports@starpath.com with the word "help" 
(without the quotes) in the subject line.

If the email requesting reports is not in the format described above, the mail is 
discarded, generating no response. For questions or comments on this service contact 
us at helpdesk@starpath.com.