Two days ago a tropical depression formed north of Venuatu and was predicted to bring gale force winds to Fiji, mostly along the west coast where Apropos is still sitting in her “cyclone pit”.  Yesterday it was upgraded to a category 1 cyclone and named Zena, making it the 26th cyclone of the season.  Early this morning is was predicted to stay cat1 until it passed Fiji, then go to a cat2 as it moves SE.  About 2 hours ago, Zena went to a fast moving cat3 and is expected to pass by us between midnight and 3am.  The eye of a cat3 cyclone has winds between 111 and 129 mph and it’s expected to pass within 50 miles of us, so we could see winds close to 100mph.  I think I’ll go out on deck to see what it feels like!

The bigger concern for Viti Levu is the rainfall.  The ground is already saturated from the last couple days of rainfall–nearly 20″–from the tropical depressions that passed through 2 days ago.  The road from Vuda to the airport in Nadi was flooded and closed today.  Things will only get worse as Cyclone Zena is expected to add another 12 to 18 hours of heavy rainfall tonight and tomorrow.

Update:  Cyclone Zena went further south than predicted and started breaking apart as it passed more than 50 miles off Fiji’s west coast.  All we got at Vuda Point marina were 30 knot winds and zero rain.  Great for sleeping–no mozzies and great ventilation while on the hard.