LaGmra Day 17 - Weather Guide & Gale Force Winds 10 Dec, 06 - 23.14

The stormy conditions have worsened in the past 24 hrs.
The ferry service across the islands to Tenerife may be cancelled due to the weather on Tuesday and James Little and the others plan to leave La Gomera tomorrow in order to catch their onward flights to London on Wed.
A further bit of bad news at breakfast time. Gábor Rakonczai & Andrea Pálos, attempting to cross from Cadiz in Spain to Antigua set off their EPIRB this morning and a rescue at sea is underway for them. Seems like they got hit by the storm.
The evening was taken up by a group meeting with Kenneth to assess the current situation and go over a few emergency procedures at sea.
Since, I will be writing much about the weather over the next few days, here is a brief guide to interpreting the weather maps posted on this site from my daily OPC data.
The black and white image on the right, is the Surface Forecast for the Atlantic, from the OPC (Ocean Prediction Center), run by the US department of Commerce. http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/
The Surface Forecast provides data on atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and precipitation. It is based upon data collected routinely from trained observers satellites, weather stations, buoys. The Surface Forecast is usually available for 24, 48 and 96 hour periods and is updated daily.
(For more on other info such as Wave Heights, Pressure and Satellite maps visit http://www.bhavik.com/crossatlantic/weathercenter.htm)
The main symbol in the diagram, (F) is a wind barb, which indicates wind speed and direction. The Wind barb points outward in the direction "from" which the wind is blowing.
The term easterly means that the winds are from the east. In the
example, the winds are out of the northeast, or north-easterly. On the otherhand, the term "eastward" means that the winds are blowing towards the east.
Wind speed is given here in the units of "knots" (knt). A "Knot" is a nautical mile per hour.
1 Knot = 1.15 Miles Per Hour (MPH)
1 Knot = 1.9 Kilometres Per Hour (KM/HR)
Each short barb represents 5 knots, each long barb 10 knots. A long barb and a short barb is 15 knots, simply by adding the value of each barb together (10 knots + 5 knots = 15 knots). If only a station circle is plotted, the winds are calm.
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The winds around La Gomera are averaging 35-45 knots.
We were hoping to leave Wednesday, but it looks optimistic with the current weather forecast. Waiting for a break in the weather when the storm center moves further North.
Thanks to all for the messages,
B
TODAYS PHOTOS -
1. My daily OPC weather report

2. Weather map and symbols

3. Interpreting symbols for wind speed