Its just after 9 am Sunday here, and the forecast says that the worst of the storm is due late this evening. Right now its about 600 miles away and we're getting the first of the wind and cloud.
I've secured everything, will be putting a tarp over the cockpit of little Spook up on her trailer in the carpark at the top of the track, I dont want her to be filled up with water by the forecast very heavy rain.
The wind is gusty right now, every now and again a big one moves my ship around, ropes groan and she heels against the dock, bumping sharply, making the fenders creak.
Its dead low tide now, we're lucky that this is neaps rather than springs so the high will be a metre lower than otherwise, that hopefully will reduce the effects of the storm surge, but looking at my tide gauge I am sure that the water level is higher than it would normally be, I've checked the tide almanac and yes, probably 200mm or so above where it should be.
And the storm is still less than halfway between Vanuatu where it has done enormous damage, and us.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11417449
Scroll down for a live windmap.
John Welsford
Take care John
ReplyDeleteStay safe
Steve
Arwens meanderings
Thanks Steve, the wind report says 45 knots at the entrance to the river, and this thing is still 8 to 10 hours away.
DeleteI'll be ok, but am concerned about some of the people who live on a low lying patch of ground just inside the rivermouth so am off down there to see if anyone wants to move to higher ground.
JohnW
Hi Alden from Whangarei - You may like to take a look at this site.
ReplyDeletehttp://earth.nullschool.net/jp/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=127.95,12.17,216
It was used by the Sunday Herald on the front page - you can play around with it and move the cyclone on the map and get 3 hourly predictions - and find out wind speeds - very useful. The wind here in Whangarei is about 30 kph and rising - This site is predicting that we will only get a peak of 50kph but anything can happen! - There seems to be a trend out to the east at the moment, but I am not holding my breath.
By the way a friend of yours Annie and Fantail are mooring next to me on the piles here in the Hatea River, she came up from downriver yesterday to keep safe and to ride this out in a calmer fashion - talked to her yesterday as I checked my mooring lines - shes well, just back from the Barrier - She said if her boat had bilge keels she would have found a mangrove swamp over there to ride it out in!
Kind Regards, good luck, stay safe.
Alden - Yacht Mariner Whangerei and possessor of 2 sets of your dinghy plans : > )
Hang on John. Be safe, and we wich you all the best.
ReplyDelete-Joel