The big news on Maui last weekend and early last week was Hurricane Felicia. All indicators were pointing to a direct hit from Felicia on Maui or the Big Island. Luckily for us, as Felicia approached she got sheared apart by trade winds and weakened further by cooler waters. So, we didn’t so much dodge a bullet, we still took a direct hit, it’s just the bullet morphed into a soggy marshmallow. The result was a soggy day on Tuesday. In addition to that, winds have been a bit wonky this week, pretty light on the north shore, making Kihei the windiest spot on Maui to sail.
Thursday brought a little stronger wind to the north shore and lots of folks were out at Kanaha, but 5.7 and floaty 90 liters wasn’t enough to get me going very often. It took until late afternoon yesterday before the wind was able to come up to even moderate levels.
August is typically Hawaii’s busiest month as far as hurricane activity goes. And, though we don’t often take a hard direct hit, these tropical systems definitely have a way of mucking up the trade wind flow. Felicia may be long gone now, but here younger brother Guillermo is now brewing out to our east. Though his present forecast track is expected to be well north of us, that track will take him right between us and our trade wind producing high pressure. The result, Guillermo will likely shut down the trade winds from about Tuesday through Thursday next week. You can see Guillermo’s forecast track in the image below.
