Sofar Ocean

10/13/2026

Where were the closest Spotter buoys as Hurricane Isaias crossed the Gulf, Oct 8–10?

Operated by GCOOS partners in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, these buoys kept reporting waves, wind, and sea surface temperature through the storm. Forecasters, emergency managers, and the public used that data in real time, and it will feed the models for the next storm. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab Spotter off Alabama, installed last year at the request of the National Weather Service, sat directly in Isaias’s track.

See the data from Spotters that reported through the storm:

Mississippi State University:
- https://data.gcoos.org/station_details.php?station=SPOT_33439C
- https://data.gcoos.org/station_details.php?station=SPOT_33441C

WAVCIS CSI07
- https://data.gcoos.org/station_details.php?station=CSI07

How Spotters hold up in extreme conditions worldwide: https://hubs.ly/Q04B0XD30

Thank you to GCOOS and its partners for keeping these assets in the water.

10/12/2026

Meet Solan, a software engineer at Sofar Ocean, who made Wayfinder’s vessel performance models accurate from day one. 🚢

When a ship is chartered one day and sails the next, there’s no voyage history to learn from. Solan’s work lets Wayfinder model a brand-new vessel with far less data, with 2.7× more accurate fuel predictions on Day Zero.

Watch to hear how Solan built it, and what genre of music this update would be. 🎶

Sno Riley, our Software Engineering Manager, explains how the team did it in her new blog post: https://hubs.ly/Q04zYz830

10/12/2026

10/07/2026

Run your own routing with Wayfinder Explore. 🚢

Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q04znH4q0

10/06/2026

Our webinar is tomorrow: Real-Time Ocean Data in the Pacific, Tuesday at 3:00 PM PT 🌊

Join Sāmoa Meteorological Service live to hear how the Spotter network they deployed with SPREP is strengthening marine warnings and safety at sea, with Q&A at the end.

Tuesday, October 6th · 3:00 PM PT
Wednesday, October 7th · 11:00 AM Samoa

Can't make it live? Register anyway and we'll send the recording.
Register: https://bit.ly/3TH3E6U

10/05/2026

We cut a ton of power from Spotter Sound. 🔊

Next Gen Spotter Sound uses less than half the power of the original, even while running detection models at the edge. That means always-on listening in more places, with real-time detection of vessels, marine mammals, and more, all on the same solar budget. 🌤

Read Matt Krause's blog on how we did it: https://bit.ly/4hNrVQR

10/01/2026

Introducing Wayfinder Explore 🚢 🗺️

Built for fleets that route in-house, Wayfinder Explore lets teams optimize voyages and adjust routes with a single click. Explore gives captains and routing teams direct access to the Wayfinder engine, integrating each ship's own Digital Twin and running on best-in-class marine weather forecasts.

Generate voyage optimization in seconds with a single click while minimizing fuel and meeting RTAs. Adjust waypoints or RPM and instantly see the impact across fuel, time, and cost before making a decision.

Easily share route options between ship and shore with a link. Request on-demand support from Sofar Ocean's own expert team of routers, right from the application.

Captains and routing teams can optimize, adjust, and share routes with full visibility into fuel, time, and cost across every decision.

Learn more about Wayfinder Explore: https://bit.ly/3VnnN2h

10/01/2026

09/30/2026

Meet Nick, a mechanical and field operations engineer at Sofar Ocean, who built the cable clamp, a new part that attaches anywhere along a Smart Mooring cable. 🌊

On a typical mooring, the main line runs straight down to the anchor while a second line runs out to the surface float. Where those two meet, the cable bends at a sharp angle, and that bend is exactly where cables wear out first.

The cable clamp has that angle built into its shape, so the stress that would normally hit the cable is carried by the part instead. And because it clamps on anywhere, customers can reconfigure moorings from cable they already have and adapt the same hardware to different deployment depths.

Nick also shows off the test rig he built to prove it, which cycles Smart Mooring cables hundreds of thousands of times at up to 1,000 lb of tension.

Watch to see how it works, and why the brains of the whole operation are a bunch of circuit boards in a bucket. 🪣🔌

Learn more about Spotter Smart Mooring: https://hubs.ly/Q04yLRSx0