Metservice bouys deployed

What does the future hold – forecasting in the Southern Ocean.

Aaron releasing the weather bouy ©

It’s almost a national pastime in New Zealand to discuss the weather – what’s been, what’s happening but more importantly what might be coming our way.

Mysterious packages arrive to the vessel /Spirit of Enderby/, cardboard cartons, large enough for a person to stow away in. These contain buoys from the New Zealand Metservice which when deployed at the designated coordinates relay weather and sea data. This data combined with various other information assists in the overall weather information that is presented in our daily TV, papers, radio and on the internet. Its not all a weather guess after all.

Heritage Expeditions have deployed ten buoys this southern season in the New Zealand Subantarctic region. Five on a November voyage and a further five in December when the vessel was travelling south to Antarctica.