Bob blog

Bob McDavitt's ideas for sailing around the South Pacific. Disclaimer: Weather is a mix of pattern and chaos; these ideas are from the patterned world. Compiled 12 Apr 2026 VAIANU My illustrated edition has wind and rain accumulation map from Cyclone VAIANU over New Zealand (thanks to windy.com)from dawn Sunday 12 April to dawn Monday 13 April And, thanks to Neil Gordon, an animation of Vaianu as seen by MetService radar during Sunday SEA TEMPERATURES March 2026 brought the warmest March land temperatures to USA in the past 132 years. The world's oceans reached their warmest measured peak in 2024 and again reached those levels in late March 2026, relaxing in past few weeks This is shown in the "World Sea Surface temperature" seen at climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/ TROPICS .Cyclone Maila intensified to Category-4 strength between the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, where such storms have rarely developed in the past, and never of such force. It helped create a twin , Cyclone SINLAKU in the northern hemisphere thanks the a zone of equatorial westerly winds . Cyclone Vaianu skirted Fiji with Category-3 force and today its remains travelled across the North Island brining wind and rain especially to Northland, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. . Cyclone Indusa passed over the mid-Indian Ocean. WEATHER ZONES Low L1 remains slow moving near 35 to 40S well southeast of Tahiti until mid -week then moves off to the southeast. High H1 stays quasi-stationary near 40S 140W. MAILA is travelling west and unravelling into a low L3 which weakens after Wednesday. VAIANU is expected to disappear to the southeast on Monday. That is likely to mark the end of this cyclone season, which nominally runs out at the end of this month. A trough from the Tasman Sea is expected to follow VAINUA across NZ on Tuesday night developing a Low L2 near Chathams on Wednesday. High H2 from South Australia is then expected to cross the north Tasman Sea on Thursday then north of NZ on early Friday. This is followed by a LOW L4 from the Southern Ocean, deepening as it crosses NZ on 18 to 20 April. Rain accumulation below. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you would like more details about your voyage, check metbob.com Or Facebook at /www.facebook.com/metbobnz/ Weathergram with graphics is at metbob.wordpress.com (subscribe/unsubscribe at bottom). Weathergram archive (with translator) is at weathergram.blogspot.co.nz. Contact is bob@metbob.com or text 64277762212. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>