Still waiting.

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Sun 12 Jun 2022 22:03

This is just a quick update blog.  We are still in Bay of Islands waiting for the weather.  The opportunity we thought we saw at the start of June was shut down by a front developing between New Caledonia and New Zealand and the next opportunity was far from ideal with head winds and no wind, plus a depression coming up the Tasman Sea pushing big seas a long way up towards the islands.  Departure tomorrow was looking good with south westerlies to get away from New Zealand and then south easterlies to take us up to New Caledonia but there is now the possibility of a new weather system developing in our path.  The forecasts are changing from day to day and the different models can’t agree on what is going to happen, which makes planning difficult.  We are still looking at the possibility of leaving and going well to the west to avoid the worst.

Today’s weather.  This is the depression that stopped us leaving last week

Yesterdays forecast for next Saturday.  The white line is the direct route to New Caledonia: we would need to go west to stay clear of this system

Today’s forecast for next Sunday shows the low forming later and travelling further east, out of our direct line

We are waiting to hear from MetBob, New Zealand’s yachting weather guru, and when we have his thoughts on the outlook we will make our decision.