Monday 24 August

Quite a bright and sunny day, but breezy - a southerly wind force 5 this morning. Which means that we had a third abortive visit by a cruiseliner. The Vistamar hove into view at 10.30, with all intention of docking. Unfortunately, the southerly wind made it quite hazardous for this large vessel to manoeuver (read: perform a 180 degree turn), so about an hour ago, she duly went on her way again. At this time, AIS does not show her updated destination. Please note: if you read this much later than the time of posting, the AIS map that the link leads to will not show an up-to-date position of this vessel.

Hurricane Bill has ceased being a tropical cyclone; it is now a non-tropical depression, headed east across the Atlantic. The UK will see its remnant on Wednesday, blowing northeast across the country with a lot of wind and rain. That means a nasty northeasterly for us, as we'll be in the northern quadrant of the depression. Another tropical cyclone I have so far not mentioned is typhoon Vamco. That system is gradually weakening as it moves north along 156 degree longitude east towards Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific. It peaked at 115 knots (130 mph), but was not bothering anyone apart from seafarers.