Bob Blog 16 May

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 Sunday 16 May

Fiji Government's Covid Risk Management Taskforce CRMT issued (on Friday 14
May) a limitation to Fiji's Bluelane initiative. All visiting yacht crew and
passengers can still disembark at the port of clearance (Denarau or
Savusavu), BUT NOWHERE ELSE. Yachts are allowed to cruise around Fiji's
maritime islands, and anchor but NOT disembark. This applies to uninhabited
islands as well. They can return to their arrival port to disembark. Also,
all crew and passengers with a mobile phone need to download the careFIJI
app and turn Bluetooth on.

The Tropics
The latest cyclone activity report is at tropic.ssec.wisc.edu and Tropical
Cyclone Potential is from www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/TCFP/index.html
Cyclone ANDRES was named on 9 May, off the west coast of Mexico. Making it
the first named storm in the NorthEast Pacific-the cyclone season here
nominally starts on 15 May, so it as an early start to the season. Cyclone
TAUKTAE, off the west coast of India, is also an early starter. As if India
isn't having a hard enough time already with its second wave of the COVID 19
pandemic, TAUKTAE weather has closed Goa airport and is expected to make
landfall over the Gujarat coast during the early hours of local Tuesday. It
is expected to weaken inland and not affect the Mount Everest climbing
season.

There are some weak zones of potential development east of Philippines and
west of Mexico.

WEATHER ZONES
SPCZ=South Pacific Convergence zone.

The SPCZ is expected to be returning to normal and mainly from Coral Sea to
northern Vanuatu/northern Fiji to between Raro and Tahiti, and rather weak
over Samoa.
A low is expected to form between New Caledonia and Fiji by Friday and
travel southeast to east of NZ by Sunday.

Subtropical ridge (STR)
HIGH 1022+ at 30S to south of French Polynesia is expected to move off to
the southeast by mid-week. The mini-squash-zone between Tahiti and Tonga is
expected to weaken accordingly.
HIGH 1026+ off NSW by Tuesday is expected to travel along 35S/40S and reach
North Island by mid-week and form another HIGH east of North Island from
Thursday.

Aussie/Tasman/NZ troughs
On Monday and Tuesday, south of 35S, passing Troughs are expected to bring
strong W/SW winds and large swells to Tasman Sea/NZ area. Then OK for
Sailing from Aus to NZ.
Avoid the Low between Fiji and NZ on Friday/Saturday.

Panama to Galapagos/Marquesas
Light winds for Panama. SW/S winds from 5North to Galapagos. Currents help
make the trip to Marquesas via north of Galapagos better this week.
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If you would like more detail for your voyage, then check metbob.com to see
what I offer.
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 txt 64277762212
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