Wind warning

Its shaping up to be a windy Vaka Eiva.

The Cook Islands Meteorological Service has issued a strong wind warning ahead of this years oe vaka festival.

We are currently issuing a strong wind warning associated with a low pressure system to the southeast of Rarotonga and moving towards the east with the weak trough line currently over Rarotonga, operations manager Maara Vaiimene said yesterday. He says he will upgrade the forecast on Monday.

Vaiimene added that a pocket of clouds (holding moisture) is moving east, away from Rarotonga, to be replaced by a high-pressure pocket. The effect will be fine weather if a bit windy through the beginning of the week.

The expected maximum temperature for next week is 29 degrees and the relative humidity forecast to be between 75% and 85%.

National mens squad steerer and coach Reuben Dearlove has also been keeping an eye on the weather forecast, and says it will be quite a breezy week.

Tomorrow north-northwest winds will create a bit of surf on the run from Avarua to Avana conversely, there will be a headwind on the way back to Avarua. Usually the opposite is true and the surf carries paddlers home.

Dearlove says on Monday the tradewinds are supposed to come back, which are east-southeast, making for a breezy week.

Once the trades arrive theyre expected to stick around for at least 10 days, so paddlers are likely to battle some wind during the Round Raro and the iron races.

However, the winds arent likely to whip up huge swells.

Even though its windy and there will be lots of whitecaps and chop, the swell wont be huge so itll still be doable, Dearlove predicted.