Noonsite Ocean Outlook - Pacific and Indian Ocean

Noonsite Ocean Outlook © Noonsite

Pacific:

The tropics in the Pacific have been active this month with Super Typhoon Nanmadol making landfall on the southern island of Kyushu, Japan (fortunately fizzling out once it hit land) and Typhoon Noru impacting the Philippines and Vietnam. Noru strengthened from 50 mph to 155 mph winds in one day, among the fastest a tropical cyclone has ever intensified, before it reached the northern Philippines.

The Puerto Galera Yacht Club on the North coast of Mindoro Island in the Philippines, has announced the 18th All Souls Regatta to take place October 29-30, 2022. The All Souls Regatta has been the largest annual cruising event in the Philippines since it was first run in 2004. All cruisers are welcome.

Just after we published last month's newsletter announcing the re-opening of New Zealand's maritime borders, it was confirmed that seven ports and marinas in NZ, five in the North Island and two in the South, are now open as ports of entry for recreational small craft.

After two years and six months, Tonga opened it's borders completely on 27 September. The Pacific crossing is now back to pre-Covid choices, a relief for a great many bluewater cruisers. The Cook Islands and Vanuatu have joined Fiji, New Caledonia and French Polynesia in lifting all Covid travel restrictions and cruisers can start planning to enter Japan next year with the announcement that the country will be opening up to (triple-vaccinated) foreign visitors from October 11, 2022.

Costa Rica has always been expensive, compared to Panama and Mexico, but now costs have increased further with the requirement in some ports to employ an agent for clearance. Swedish sailor Tore Janson reports on the complicated and ultimately unsuccessful efforts they employed in trying to clear out of the country themselves.

Hardly known outside of Pacific Mexico and Central America, a chubasco is simply a thunderstorm - or to the sailor, a squall - but there's nothing simple about them. Chubascos are a violent area of intense rain, lightening and wind that occur from July through September in the Sea of Cortez. SV Totem share their knowledge for yachts headed that way.

Indian:

PredictWind have set up a group tracking page for all cruising boats crossing the Indian Ocean that wish to take part. This is not just for OCC members, all cruisers may join. If you have a PredictWind account and want to be included, send your PW email address to and ask to be added to the OCC Indian Ocean tracking group. To set your account to be part of the group (which enables you to see the tracking via the offshore app) follow the tutorial here. Best done ashore before passage.

Sailors for Sustainability have posted some useful feedback on a recent stopover at Christmas Island after departing Australia from Darwin.

The global shipping industry has agreed to declassify the Indian Ocean coastline off Somalia as a "high-risk area" from 1 January, 2023, following years of successful counter-piracy operations. For private yachts wanting to make the Red Sea passage this move will hopefully make it easier to find insurance coverage.

After an encouraging improvement in yachting protocols a decade ago when Indonesia introduced an online portal for handling yacht clearance, it now seems that yacht clearance through Indonesia is becoming complicated once again, with cruisers reporting additional paperwork and reporting requirements, fines and some ports necessitating the use of an agent. With so many islands and 28 ports of entry, the clearance process can vary greatly from port to port and requirements often change. Read how Kristin Cowan cleared into Bali without an agent. A more detailed report on Cruising Indonesia will be published next month.

This article has been provided by the courtesy of noonsite.com