Weather Report

Two days of twenty-five knot winds, rain, and steel to black skies have even the whales hiding in the depths of the warm water. Did I say warm? I meant the chilly water, because according to Bob McDavitt (our weather guru out of New Zealand), there is a 'cool finger' of water extending from Fiji to Niue.

Though this chilly and apparently middle finger has cut my swim time in half, we’re hoping it is an indicator of a less active cyclone season in this region of the South Pacific. Typically, in El Nino years, high ocean temperatures are associated with high cyclonic activity, so perhaps these cool, squally conditions will mean a slightly longer cruising season and mellower trip to New Zealand. We’ll see.

In the meantime, all is well onboard. We’re in a comfortable, well protected anchorage, doing plenty of yoga, baking plenty of bread, and watching plenty of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Flight of the Concords’ to get jazzed about our impending expedition further south.

Now the real question for the weather engineers in the audience: how do we get these rain clouds to mosey on over to California? I will put more Kahlua in my coffee, and ponder.