Colleen & Brian.

June 23, 2001 - Hi Des, It's THETA VOLANTIS!

25 04S, 179 52W

Several hundred miles out of New Zealand, even from Tahiti, Des at Russell Radio can be picked up on SSB. He provides a brilliant service in maintaining yacht positions, providing weather reports and, perhaps most important, a warm friendly voice when things aren't going too well. And all for a voluntary donation of $30NZ (about $12US) from each boat, that's because Russell Radio is privately run by a couple of Old Time radio hams, Des Renner and Ritchie Blomfield, both in their mid seventies.

The weather between Tonga and New Zealand is difficult to predict, especially more than 5 days ahead. We've provided a simplified version of the problems below, more details can be gleaned from Bob McDavitt's "Metservice Yacht Pack" (see below for contact info) which should be carried and read by all boats transiting the SW Pacific.

But back to Des, we made our daily position calls, and after a few days the weather started to go pear-shaped (a British version of it hitting the fan) and we had wind from all directions and the weatherfax forecasts looked like we would be getting reasonably strong NE winds, and Tonga is NNE of New Zealand Not what we like, beating in open ocean for 700 miles.

We are through it now, the winds are currently light, 6 knots, and we are motoring in a flattening sea directly for Tonga, about 350 miles away. What sticks in our mind is the weather reported by Des to Jacqueline, a German boat about 250 miles ahead of us, before the NE winds came through - they obviously didn't have a weatherfax.

J- "Hi Des, had a great day sailing in SE 15 knot winds."
Des- "Good, they'll be going NE for you tomorrow." (Pause while the skipper of Jacqueline ponders this unwelcome news).
J- "How long will the NE winds last?"
Des- "About 12 hours, then they go Northerly." (Longer pause during which you could almost hear the silent Aaaaargh)
J- "Thanks, Des."