October 24, 2012
Rich and I decided to wait before doing the passage to New Zealand, but other cruisers were ready to go! Some of them would be heading for the Ha’apai group, but many people were beginning to study the weather and wait for a weather window directly from Vava’u to New Zealand. This changed the mood at the Aquarium a bit: instead of leisurely surfing the internet, people were anxiously watching and analyzing weather patterns. -Cyndi
More details from Rich… There are several sources of weather information that we, and other cruisers use. Some, including us, use weather routers. These are experienced meteorologists, either amateur or professional, that provide weather and course advice. Ultimately, the responsibility is your own as these weather routers aren’t on the boat suffering with you if they happen to get it wrong. Almost everyone, including us, watch other weather information as well.
Another great source of weather information are GRIB files (GRIded Binary files). These are computer model predictions of the weather and, when away from land effects, are incredibly accurate. A GRIB file is pictured below. There are also several other types of files available from the various weather services including satellite pictures, surface analysis charts and even text weather outlooks. (If you’re planning this kind of trip, also learn about Nadi Fleet Codes – another type of weather file.) The valuable files in this part of the pacific are from Fiji and New Zealand.
Some people get these files via the HAM radio, like us, while others use satellite phones to retrieve these files. Both are slow and the latter is expensive, so anytime there’s internet access available, especially free internet access, cruisers flock to the signal to download their particular flavor of weather information. Such was the scene most days at the Aquarium Cafe. Much of the consternation you see on the faces here is because, for the most part, few of these varied sources of weather information are in agreement with each other. Much vehement, though good-natured arguing resulted in defending one’s weather conclusions. –Rich
