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What will this tropical weather do?

23:09.61S 135:02.32W

I mentioned before the fact that we had been struggling to get our heads around tropical weather and its forecasting. Last weekend had not just us but every boat in the area studying the weather situation very closely. A tropical depression was coming right over us (TD18F was its label) and as it was our first experience of one we were not sure what to expect.
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Chau Chau Wolfgang, chau South America, aloha Polynesia

25:38.00S 126:39.00W – 200 Miles East of Pitcairn Island.

Our battered Chilean courtesy flag, now retired

Our battered Chilean courtesy flag, now retired

A week of trade wind sailing at last. We have had only one slow day during the last week and even then we made 100 Miles otherwise we have been averaging somewhere around 120 Miles a day. Today we have under 200 Miles to run to Pitcairn although we haven’t decided whether to stop there or not yet.
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Equinoctial Gales

Satellite image from 05:09UTC 05 March 2015

Satellite image from 05:09UTC 05 March 2015

The weather that I spoke about in the last entry materialised almost as forecast but in our sheltered spot didn’t affect us much. We could feel some swell, see the clouds rushing past overhead and of course feel the rain hammering down in the frontal part of the system. Read more ›



Guessing at the weather

We are still sitting out a prolonged period of windy conditions that look set to last for some days to come. I thought that I would write a little about the sources of information that we use to ‘guess’ what weather we ‘might’ get. Here when we talk of weather we generally mean ‘wind’; provided that the wind is favourable what the rest of the “weather” is doing is almost irrelevant. Read more ›



One Fine Day

A fine day in Estrecho Nelson

A fine day in Estrecho Nelson

The 23rd was passed swinging at anchor in Caleta Darde. It was quite comfortable, especially for peace of mind after the wind backed to the West and I was able to veer more chain.

Under way early on the 24th saw us initially covering ground previously traversed Read more ›



Four days in a row

The jellyfish of Mostyn

The jellyfish of Mostyn

Weather bound in Caleta Mussel was what we was; until the 18th when we got under way again. Because of the tidal current in Paso Tortuoso which we were in as soon as we left the bay we had to wait until about one hour before high water before leaving. This meant that we couldn’t leave until about 14:30. Read more ›



Arrival in Chile

Dawn - Statten Island (Isla de los Estados)

Dawn – Statten Island (Isla de los Estados)

We had been planning to head south from West Point Island to New Island and maybe Beaver Island to take out departure to the Le Maire Straight, but suddenly on the 8th a weather window opened that looked just too good to let pass ( sorry Charlene we didn’t make it ). The tide was good for passing the Woolly Gut in the evening so we said goodbye to Thies and Kicki and set off.
The first few hours were a bit bumpy with a wind over tide situation but progress was OK. By about 9pm we were sailing with the Airies wind-vane doing the steering. Paula was seasick so I stuck a patch on her Read more ›



Weather Satellite Reception

Clear day over the Falklands

NOAA 19 visible light image from 7 May 2014

I have had an interest in receiving the images from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) polar orbiting LEO (Low Earth Orbit) weather satellites for many years now. I have built several different antennas and a couple of receivers over the years and have used a couple of different, commercial, systems at sea. Read more ›



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