Another Storm Coming

Well we survived the big storm of a few days ago and are now battening down the hatches again for another one, due to arrive this afternoon. Apparently the next one won't have quite such destructive winds but is likely to have more rain than the last one.

The last storm slowly built up over Saturday morning with the barometer steadily falling to an incredible low of about 969.

The winds were quite impressive with a peak of 86 knots (160 kmh)at the harbour entrance. The windspeed meter on the the boat peaked at 62 knots (115 kmh) which was more than enough to keep us on our toes and keeping an eye on the ropes.




The reason I was out on the jetty in the photo above is that our TV satellite dish had just been ripped off the pole. The wind was so strong it broke a weld on the bracket holding the dish up.

Apart from the weather life goes on pretty routinely. There are always jobs to do on the boat and what with fishing usually once a week and helping friends with jobs on their boats I manage to keep reasonably busy.

Julie arrived safely in Auckland on Saturday and (weather permitting) we'll go down to Auckland tomorrow to pick her up.

Well that's about it for now, the rain has set in so I might just watch a DVD or two. Doreen is in Whangarei doing whatever it is she does in there so the boat is ALL MINE for the day!

Storm Warning

	Issued at: 4:37 am 26 Jul 2008 NZST
	Valid to: 11:59 pm 26 Jul 2008 NZST
	Forecast *STORM WARNING IN FORCE* Easterly 40 knots, rising to 50 knots this morning. Tending northerly this afternoon, becoming westerly 55 knots at night. Sea becoming very high. Northerly swell 6 metres developing. Poor visibility in rain, with some heavy and thundery falls.
	Outlook Outlook following 3 days: Rising early Sunday westerly 55 knots, easing to 35 knots at night, and to northwest 25 knots on Monday. Becoming Tuesday northeast 25 knots, rising late Tuesday to southeast 40 knots. Very high sea easing late Sunday. Heavy northeast swell developing, easing Sunday. This is what we woke to this morning on the Met Service website! A large tropical depression has been moving across the Tasman Sea from off the Queensland coast (thanks Zane and Ange) for the last few days and we''ve all been watching it closely to see where it is going to hit. Seems we've scored lucky and the target is Northland! Forecast is for storm force winds and torrential rain for about 24 hours. A satellite image shows clear skies over New Zealand and a large storm front approaching from the northwest Yesterday we doubled up on all the ropes, tied down anything that could move and went to bed to wait. Woke up this morning at 3am to hear the wind howling, the rain raining and the waves slapping on the hull like thunderclaps. Well, smallish thunderclaps. All this and it hasn't even arrived yet. The main event is due around lunchtime today. Anyway, we dozed for a couple of hours then when we couldn't lie there any longer we got up at 5am. The joys of living on a boat. Julie is due to arrive in Auckland tonight at around 11pm I think. If the storm hasn't passed by then I'm picking her flight may be diverted further south. Hopefully it will have passed though. That's it for now, I'll report later if we survive!