How to read netCDF files with ferret

[Enils Bashi <EBashi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I am new to ferret and I am having problems reading netcdf files. I got my
files from
http://stellwagen.er.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/nph-nc/data/time_series/hourly/ . I
got them in an ascii format and saved them as netCDF. Are netcdf files text
files or are they binary?
Here is what I did:

yes? file/variable=v1 1022-A_cdf_ascii.cdf
yes? plot v1
 **TMAP ERR: error 0
             Last or next-to-last record read:
u_1205.u_1205[u_1205.time=2442673][u_1205.depth=43.5][u_1205.lat=40.8678],
7.927

             Data set: .\1022-A_cdf_ascii.cdf
             Data file: .\1022-A_cdf_ascii.cdf
yes?

It was not clear to me from the Ferret online documentation how to read a
file in. The example there was very vague. 
I would greatly appreciate any help with this problem. A small sample netcdf
file would be helpful, along with the proper commands to open the file and
plot some variables.

Thank you in advance,

Enils Bashi
Programmer
Veridyne Incorporated
Annapolis: (410) 267-9833
ebashi@chesapeakebay.net <mailto:'ebashi@chesapeakebay.net'>