RE Gerroa/the heads and the wind strength there. The place is what I like to call a 'topographical marvel'. There is no current wind meter that gives an accurate representation of the wind strength, we really need one on the roof of the shoalhaven heads surf club (I use the surf cam there to judge wind strength). The wind meter listed under 'Gerroa' on seabreeze is in the lieu of the headland in a NE'R and hence is fairly inaccurate.

Back to Gerroa/7 Mile beach Topograpohy, there is something very special about the place. I live in Wollongong (50km north) and have lost count of the times that the NE sea breeze will be ~10kts in the Gong and 25kts+ at Gerroa. The shape of the surrounding mountains, the plains out behind 7 Mile beach etc all interact to create the best 'wind bowl' on the east coast...imo. I just love the look of driving around the Kiama bends (water glassy to your left) ad then looking down the coast a few Kms to Gerroa and seeing the abundance of white caps past the Gerroa headland. It's purely amasing. but anyway I digress.

Point is the Gerroa wind meter is not accurate in any sense of the word in a NE sea breeze.

/whole post fairly off topic....hope someone finds their helmet :)

CJW said...

RE be ~10kts in the Gong and 25kts+ at Gerroa. The shape of the surrounding mountains, the plains out behind 7 Mile beach etc all interact to create the best 'wind bowl' on the east coast...imo. I just love the look of driving around the Kiama bends (water glassy to your left) ad then looking down the coast a few Kms to Gerroa and seeing the abundance of white caps past the Gerroa headland. It's purely amasing. but anyway I digress.

Point is the Gerroa wind meter is not accurate in any sense of the word in a NE sea breeze.

/whole post fairly off topic....hope someone finds their helmet :)

But as long as each speed and direction on the Gerroa wind meter maps to a unique wind strength and direction on the water, we'll soon learn to interpret it.

And while we're on anemometers the Bellambi anemometer picked up eventually on Saturday

31/07:30pm 22.2 NE 18 20 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/07:00pm 22.8 NE 21 24 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/06:30pm 23.0 NNE 15 21 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/06:00pm 23.3 NE 19 22 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/05:30pm 23.4 NNE 19 22 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/05:07pm 24.2 NE 21 24 - - 0.0 - - - - - - -
31/05:00pm 24.3 N 11 17 - - 0.0 -

Is that not enough to sail in the Gong? I don't mind using a 6.7. I checked out Sandon Point at 2 pm, nothing happening so I went to Gerroa. Just like you say at the Kiama bends.

Thanks Chris, was just wondering, will get a sail at Sandon Point one day, had recalled you'd thought the Bellambi anemometer was optimistic. Will continue internet surfing for a while knowing a reading of 20 knots NE is OK.

Always a mystery how seabreezes vary up and down the coast. Gerroa was windy, but with a bit more north in the wind than usual, was very gusty.

Ian today was a perfect example of what I attempted to describe in my previous post. Just look at the readings for this arvo between Bellambi and Kurnell. All arvo it was dead north at around 13kts, gusting to a little more. Kurnell on the other hand was NE 25kts gusting to 30kts plus all arvo. Looking at the synoptic chart the prevailing airstreams should be quite northerly except for places nears the coast where the NE'r can get 'sucked in', which today wasn't W'Gong....it was pretty damn hot. I also had a look at the shoalhaven surf cam when I got home from work and it was ballistic down there too.

It's a mystery to me if not a little frustrating, hopefully the next few days don't produce the same result. Of course if it's like that on Sat it's only a short trip down to Gerroa :)

Today was a very weird wind day down here at Gerroa.

It was blowing a Southerly from early morning up until about 11:00am here (Gerroa) and at Point P .. during this time Kiama and Bellambi had N - NE blowing. then Gerroa turned East for a while then strong NE while Point P only had a 15kt Easterly ... and at the same time Ulladulla had southerlies most of the day , apart for a few hours of light Easterlies mid afternoon when it again turned Southerly at about 7pm (When everywhere else was still showing NE)

The next two days will be interesting ....
Cheers

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