Chris Parker, Chief Forecaster for the Marine Weather Center (www. MWXC.com), has a passion for both weather and boating and he shares his extensive knowledge of marine weather through his vessel-specific weather forecasts and routing advice over the SSB radio (every morning except Sundays) and through his live, interactive marine weather webinars at www.SevenSeasU.com.

As a youngster, Chris enjoyed boating with his dad and bought his first boat at age 12. Soon after he was racing on sailboats ranging from a Sunfish, Laser, Flying Scot, Lightning, and Star to various PHRF and ULDB racing boats. He lived aboard full-time for 12 years with his partner, Michael Zidziunas, and Wizard the cat and they cruised full time for five years, visiting the Bahamas, Caribbean, Bermuda, and most of the US east coast - first on their 1965 Cheoy Lee 30' ketch Dragon Lady and then on their 1966 Morgan 34' sloop Bel Ami. They took pride in traveling an average of 5,000 miles each year, while burning an average of about 50 gallons of diesel.

Since Chris had long been involved in weather forecasting – he actually forecast the weather each day during 3rd grade, something that he continued to do through high school—and since he had studied Meteorology for two years at Lyndon State College in Vermont, it wasn’t long until cruising friends realized his special skill at marine weather forecasting. They were soon hailing him on SSB and VHF radios for his forecasts. In 2002, Chris was a speaker on weather at a gathering of 300 Cruisers in Baltimore, MD (the SouthBound Cruisers Reunion). Since then he has presented more than 30 seminars to various groups.

When David Jones of the Caribbean Weather Center passed away in 2003, Chris became Chief Forecaster for the Caribbean Weather Center. He retired from this position in December of 2010 and started Marine Weather Center, where he provides weather forecasting and routing advice, mainly to small private yachts. Chris is the author of Coastal and Offshore Weather: The Essential Handbook.