The screen glows green on the iPad except for a space the size of a large postage stamp that glows red with spiraling dark streaks. I lean in to look even before getting dressed for my watch. The little box says winds of 50 with gusts to 70. The sailing instructions on the whiteboard say STAY OUT OF TROUBLE. Karl and the tiki are watching me. Karl looks very serious and the tiki has its watch cap pulled down over her eyes. The ugly mess looks like a possible tropical cyclone right where we are headed in Tonga. We need more information. Time to reach out to our network and we should probably make some northing.

The rest of the morning we let Mabel steer even if she is a bit drunk while we work on a plan. With the help of our sailing buddies Ad and Yolanda on windsong we get text forecasts. My hurricane expert friends let us know it is early in the year but has happened before here.
The Japanese weather service has flagged the red blob as a potential storm. David helps us with the Tonga weather and connecting with Bob the New Zealand weather router. Bob quickly finds us on marine traffic and gives us way points and will touch base daily. We skip the first way point and head for the second, wanting to make northing rather than have a comfortable ride.

The other email flurry today was congratulating some of the amazing scientists who will be honored at the fall AGU meeting. One of them Ellen did some of the original work on the East pacific rise that we sailed over so long ago. a brilliant scientist and communicator she designed her own career helping scientists and science agencies plan major programs. You can see her mark on almost every marine science program in the past 3 decades. I am so happy that she will be honored and dance the night away in Chicago.

We are headed towards Pago Pago that is supposed to be a good hurricane hole although it is also supposed to have bad anchoring. It would be fun to sail from Bora Bora to Pago Pago but it is not really on the way to New Zealand.

By sunset we feel like we have a plan thanks to our support network to stay out of trouble. The tiki’s hat is back up. She sis on the shelf with 5e weather books, the French wine pamplemouss and the religious candles that light the cabin at night. She says this passage is going to take longer we do not have enough pamplemousse for a cyclone. It is not a problem.