December 31, 2018
We stayed late in Fiji by most cruiser’s standards but it was kind of the norm for us. We’re always late. I was wishing we’d stayed even longer and maybe we’d have had better weather for the passage, but we left because we were seeing the signs of possible cyclones.
Here’s the cyclone probability chart from New Caledonia’s met service…
We often live comfortably in the 20% range, without much worry, but when it jumps up to above 50%, wow. Time to leave!
And it’s looking like an accurate forecast. There are currently three invests heading to Fiji. (An invest is a storm that the meteorologist types think is worth keeping an eye on. The can be seen here at Tropical Tidbits.)
Here are screenshots of forecast tracks from Tropical Tidbits (I’ve added the red arrows to point to Fiji)…
Here’s a screenshot from Windy.com showing our neighborhood…
We think we might have been safe to sit out a cyclone where we were in Fiji, but I’m so glad we won’t get a chance to find out! For the wonderful Fijians, we hope you are safe.-Rich
Update: January 1, 2019 – Happy New Year!!!
This is what the ECMWF forecast looks like today, courtesy of Windy.com…
