Just about everyone I know uses Passage Weather http://passageweather.com/# and Wind Guru http://www.windguru.cz/int/ for shore based passage planning. We have found them to be highly accurate to 5 days out on both sides of the Atlantic and free works really well for me.

I am just wondering if anyone has experience with other free meteorological services that are even better on a regional or global level?

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Not sure if its "better" but metoffice.gov.gg is free and has good forecast charts.

Use "Marine Links".