Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Weather
Conditions in the Tuamotus can change rapidly, so it is critical to track weather develop-
ments using all the resources at your disposal. Weather systems moving east from New
Zealand and tracking south of French Polynesia may work in concert with the South Pacific
Convergence Zone (SPCZ) to disturb the trade winds and cause squally conditions and
wind shifts. Therefore, the prudent cruiser should monitor weather forecasts that provide
some measure of atmospheric instability as well as describing general trends. In our experi-
ence, NOAA's GRIB files sometimes indicated very light winds when in fact gusts of up to
thirty knots occurred. We therefore augmented use of the GRIBs with a number of addi-
tional sources, such as Meteo France text forecasts, NOAA weather charts (particularly Lif-
ted Index found in their Spot forecasts), and NADI Fleet Codes (see details in
Fact File:
Weather and Tide Resources for the Tuamotus
). As at sea, our SSB and Pactor modem
proved to be indispensable tools for receiving meteorological information.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search