Low is followed by high

It is well known that low pressure areas in the northern hemisphere turn left, while in the southern hemisphere they turn right. At some point, everyone who has taken his sailing license has learned this. In the south, only the size of these areas is impressive and differs significantly from the sizes in the north. Thus, low pressure areas with a diameter greater than 1500 nautical miles are not uncommon. Partly they already develop in the Tasman Sea, are torn apart over New Zealand and reform again towards the east. Already in July they occurred in a frequency of three days. This did not change until August. On its front, the low brings winds from northerly directions, while on its back, air is brought in from the south. Unfortunately, the air in the south is very cold at the moment. So, this week the thermometer, for the first time, falls below 20°C. That is zapfig cold and lets us run around with wool socks on board.

Socks weather

Here in front of Mangareva we have to fight, in this weather situation, with downdrafts, which whistle with 30 knots down the slopes. In addition, there is a current that makes us whirl around in circles like a dancing bear. With an average water depth of 15 meters and nearly 60 meters of chain, we need quite a bit of space in the anchor field. Fortunately, there is plenty of it. In the meantime we are only four yachts, after two boats left us again today, direction Tuamotus. Another good thing is that the anchor ground holds very well. With the pirouettes we turn here, the anchor would have broken out long ago somewhere else. We knock there times quite firmly on wood. The lows then also bring, from time to time, heavy rain showers. This week we invited for dinner. This evening it rained mightily, so we had to dry our guests, first of all. Somewhere in the bilge I found a port wine from 1999. That warmed us up again. For dinner we had bread dumplings and meatballs in a mushroom cream sauce. Since they don't know dumplings in Scandinavia, the bread dumplings were the attraction. As wet as they came, they arrived back on their boats, even though we were only 100 meters apart. 

Dinner on the Katinka

While we Germans think about whether this is already weather or still climate, Jens, as a Greenlandic Dane, and Christer, as a Swede, have no problem with such weather. The highs are less defined and wrap around the lows. While the lows have a direction of migration from west to east, the highs have a less defined direction. As mentioned, they lay around the lows and are displaced by them. Mostly this is a weak wind phase that lasts about three days. The wind direction is initially northeast, but then becomes weaker and weaker and then comes from changing directions. Since we still have a lot of sunshine hours, we can continue to do a lot. 

Low and high

My dislocated arm is still causing problems, but we still hike a lot and enjoy the island. In addition, the day is filled with rehabilitation exercises. The bad internet connection is still a problem, at the beginning of the week there was no internet for three days, but we enjoy the peace and use our Iridium connection when necessary. I would like to publish a movie on YouTube again, but unfortunately I had to stop the attempt. After three hours of uploading a film of just over five minutes, only two percent had been transferred. We hope that we will be able to publish videos again in the Marquesas at the latest. We will definitely spend August on the Gambiers and in September we will not leave right away. That depends on the highs and lows that pass over us. For now we are looking forward to the next high, which we expect at the weekend and which will bring the temperatures up a bit. Until then, we wish you, fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip.