Hurricane Tomas, Fiji

March 16, 2010—About five days ago we started watching a weather system developing north and east of us. It then became tropical cyclone Tomas, and it was predicted to move over Vanua Levu sometime on Monday, which it did. We are on Viti Levu which is south and west, and it looks as though this system will not go right over this island. In addition to Tomas, tropical cyclone Ului was out to the north and west of us.

We have spent the past two days preparing the boat for this cyclone. We took down our sun awning and jib sail. We lashed the main sail to the boom, tied down our solar panels, put out our large fenders, and cleared the decks of anything that was loose and could become a flying object. We doubled our dock lines and attached them to large stakes that the marina has all around the berths. We also put out an additional aft line, which the men at the marina tied to the large center ring that is in the water in the middle of the circular marina. There is also a surge gate that will be placed at the entrance of the marina in order to reduce the waves as they enter. The people here have worked very hard to make sure that all the boats are as secure as possible.

This morning around 7 o'clock the wind picked up, and we had a very light rain. The weather report last night indicated that Tomas would head a bit east, which was good news for us, but we will just wait to see what happens—it should be interesting. Ului seems to have moved south and away from Fii. That was also good news.

If you look at the bottom of the picture just left of center, you will see the islands of Fiji. This was taken on March 14.

I will post another blog in a few days when this systems moves on.