Last Minute Weather Cancellation

More often than not, the weather cooperates. Sometimes however, it does not. We start looking intently at the weather five days before any trip. Since the charter companies rely heavily on the NOAA marine forecast, that is where I start. I usually the confirm the forecasts by checking two other sites: windfinder.com and windy.com. 
If we have a favorable forecast that is unlikely to change, I send out a group email with all critical trip information: when and where to meet, where to park, what to bring etc. I usually add that the group will only hear from me if the forecast changes drastically. 
If we have a poor or questionable weather forecast, things are more complex. The first group email will contain the forecast and our judgment on how likely it is that the trip will go out. Often we will wait a couple of days before making a final decision, unless we have a long-term forecast of very poor weather. The main reason we wait is to make sure that cancellation is the best decision. Some people have traveled very long distances and spent a lot of money to do our trips, and we want to go out when it is prudent to do so. When it is necessary to cancel, we do our best to do so as early as possible, allowing people to cancel hotel reservations, etc. Nevertheless, we sometimes make the decision as late as the day before, or very rarely, the morning of. We thought we would be able to run our July 19 pelagic, but the skipper called me the day before expressing concern about running the trip. As we discussed this, he made the discussion to cancel our trip. Although the final decision on whether or not to go out is made by the charter, safety is a concern shared by everyone, and neither the charters nor Oregon Pelagic Tours will willingly put anyone in harm's way.