On our way
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 16 Feb 2015 00:25
So we are sailing close hauled in 12 knots wind, 28 degrees Celsius.
Heading for the island of Koro, should be there by 7 tonight.
Fishing lure is out.
The other day Andreas and I went biking and we had to make it over a steep hill. It got hotter and hotter, there was absolutely no breeze.
So I complained,"it's getting warmer and warmer"
Andreas replied like a father telling his son, "well we are getting closer to the sun you see"
Another topic on board now is Erika who has asked and learned how to make kids. "That's disgusting!"was her outcry.
A few days later, "doers that mean that if you want to have 2 kids you have to do it twice?!"
We also had an interesting phonecall with Craig in Whitianga/New Zealand and it might result that we will actually go there and leave the boat in their care...
we will see
Latest on cyclones:
Bob McDavitt’s ideas for sailing around the South Pacific.
The Ocean: extra heat has been stored in the Pacific Ocean for a while
now, and Oceanic indices are still in El Nino territory but relaxing. In
fact Sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean are now less
than normal. But they remain above normal in the western and central
Pacific.
The Atmosphere: The Southern Oscillation Index SOI (30 day running mean)
sums up the weather pattern over the South Pacific as one number. It is
based on the standardized difference in the barometer readings between
Tahiti and Darwin. It has been negative since July and dived below -10
(Australian units) for much of September, and again for a week in
November, then relaxed in early December and during January, and is now
diving negative.
TROPICAL TOPICS
The tropic are going through a quiet time at present—There are some
tropical lows around NE of Australia and maybe in Gulf of Carpentaria
moving south, and one over Vanuatu and another to NW of Australia – both
of these are travelling southeastwards and not expected to develop.
The weekly rain maps over the past fortnight show a shift in the most
intense rain southwards across the equator and towards NE Australia. This
is the zone with the warmest sea surface temperatures in the planet at
present and it has stored plenty of heat in the last month to feed
several top category cyclones. What has been missing over recent weeks is
the opportunity. Late this month we expect another MJO cycle of enhanced
convection to travel east across northern Australia and into the Coral
Sea—so although the risk of a cyclone may be low this week , it is
expected to rise rapidly towards the end of February.\