Inconvenient weather – OK at anchor
It’s hard to overstate how important the weather is when traveling by boat. When we’re at anchor, an unexpected or unplanned for storm is just an inconvenience. A few things may get wet, or perhaps our plans for the day may need to be changed.
When offshore, however, bad weather can range from unpleasant and uncomfortable, to very unpleasant and frightening, and even potentially to dangerous. So, almost every day away from a dock starts with a review of the weather forecast.
This is especially true now that we’ve begun thinking about our trip home. We would like to have a pleasant start to the trip – the best way to arrange for that is to leave with light to moderate winds, and to have them come from as far from the south as possible. Of course, the prevailing wind in Hawaii comes from the northeast, so the best we can hope for is east wind instead of northeast.
The other factor that we keep in mind are tropical storms. It’s hurricane season now, and we’ve been watching as low pressure systems march across the eastern Pacific towards Hawaii. One of these is forecasted to pass just south of the islands mid-week – it’s the first of these storms that has made it this far into the central Pacific this year.
More waiting for weather just means more beautiful evenings in Hanalei Bay
The good news is that there is typically plenty of advance warning if a storm will turn into a hurricane, and if that hurricane will make it as far west as we are. But they definitely have our attention, and we’ll head out early if we need to avoid one.
Right now, it looks like the trade winds are forecast to ease a bit this weekend after a minor low pressure system passes this week. That reduction in wind strength is also forecast to drop the waves from 7-10′ to a more manageable 5′. Since the first few days of our trip home will be into the wind and the waves, we are happy to see a more benign forecast.
