Weather

New Zealand is a country full of sailors and when conversation ventures onto the subject of Auckland Islands the one question I am always asked is will I have weather fax. The importance of being able act in advance of approaching weather systems was particularly clear in Sub-Antarctic waters. With our need for email too I had always planned to use my laptop to capture weather information direct from the marine radio. It worked extremely well. An unforeseen benefit was that I could store and reproduce any fax we captured during our voyage.

It is with interest that I now look back on the weather faxes showing the storm that caused the greatest tragedy in the history of the annual Sydney to Hobart race in which six sailors tragically lost their lives. The race started on Dec 26th, the same day the storm severely intensified along the Australian coast. The storm reached us on the 28th and 29th of December.

I would invite you to also look at the 0600 Jan 07th fax, the night we had to relocate to Waterfall Inlet after our anchor dragged as a result of due to strong winds in Camp Cove, Carnley harbour. The heavy conditions we encountered on our departure from the Islands may be seen in the 0000 Jan 12th fax.

Weather Faxes