Current summary:
You guys mentioned some high clouds in your observation. Well, there’s some stuff going on at upper levels. At 200 mb, there’s a local maximum in the westerly jet just to your north. It seems that divergence headed into the jet is causing some lift, giving you those high clouds. But ok. There are more important things.
The wind! ASCAT says the winds are 10-15 kts just off the point right now, from NNE. Further off the coast (over by the Cape Verdes and to their north) it gets as high as 20 kts. Between you and Cape Verde, ECMWF says winds get up to 18 kts.
5 day outlook:
It has them picking up by Wednesday to 18-23 kts, sticking there through Friday, and then subsiding back to the 15-18… and then back to 18-23. It will be rip-roarin.
Forecast through Wednesday or so:
Winds: I’m going to say 5-10 kt on the coast but 10-15 not far offshore. It’ll prolly stay there for a day or so but could be up to 20 or even a bit higher by Wed out at sea.
Pressure: That high to your north should hold something like steady… not looking interesting. (that’s from glancing at ECMWF)
Waves: 1.5-2 m, NNW. getting to 2-3 m in 48 h (which is Wednesday) (from NWW3 global model)
Currents: There are probably tidal currents. We looked for these briefly, and data is hard to come by. You can probably tell better than us, from hanging out on the water! To be fair, we never asked David.
As far as open-ocean current (these are from RTOFS), there is an eddy up north of the Cape Verde islands. There is some stuff between you and them as well, up to 1.5-2 kts. I’m going to have to find and/or make some higher resolution maps to look at of it though…
Prepare well for your adventure ahead!
Forecaster Pendergrass.
One reply on “Preparing to leave shore”
Thanks to Angie and crew. This is a great addition and really helps us put into context, and visualize the conditions facing the JRH and crew. Hoping for a smooth window out there! Cheers.