Hi Sunchaser,
The vessel has VSat Internet, so the Bridge is not using one particular site. Obviously, the buck stops with the Captain, so he makes the final decision, but each bridge officer tends to use what service (too many to list) they are comfortable with. These forecasts still do need interpretation, and certain guys like certain presentations. Our office also watches the weather through a paid commercial service, like FUGRO. At the end of the day, we're just making a B-Line for Singapore, and what comes, comes. All the forecast can do for us at this point, is tell us how sincere we need to be with our sea-fastening, but you asked a valid question. One which I asked myself!
Re; the ballast. We are nowhere near 'fully-laden' but we did take on full fuel, (about 290,589 gallons) in Alesund, Norway. We're burning about 4,000 gallons a day.
Anyway, we have an active ballast system which can take-on, and move around sea-water ballast to any ballast tank around the ship. We can increase or decrease draft at will, and often do so for heavy subsea lifts, while stationary, on DP.
