An interesting website is www.metservice.co.nz The met service give updated weather forecasts every 12 hours, and more frequently if there is some inclement weather about. If you go into metservice look up areas Rangitata (sth of Banks Pen.) area Conway (nth of Banks Pen.). The weather here travels anticlockwise, with the summer time ( Oct to April ) prevailing wind being nth east and is usually a daytime breeze, drops away in the evening, but provides quite strong ( 40knts) katabatic winds in the early hours of the morning, especially in area Conway. If nth westerly’s are forecast this provides strong gusty winds “feast or a famine” scenario, 0 cents to 60 and 70 knts. Have you ever sailed into your home port with a storm jib and four reefs in the main, only to find you are becalmed, and while about to carry out a sail change you get flattened again! That’s a good nor’wester.

Winter breezes tend to be very light ( 0 – 10 knts), frosty nights and sunny days, with the occasional southerly buster coming through. Mostly they don’t go much above 40 knts for about 10 to 20 hours, but now and again a good one hits ( like the one that destroyed the unprotected marina ) which can be 25 knts to 60 knts for a sustained 60 to 72 hours. If you have any cruisers in the area that require shelter; Purau bay is the place to send them, 3-4 mts deep, good thick gloopy mud, and the southerly ( centre of the bay) and norwester ( western shoreline) here is an offshore wind.

Bob Andrews

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