Laurabada is the southeast trade wind, the steady dry-season wind of the Motu coast and one of the two named seasonal winds around which the maritime calendar and the hiri turned. It was Laurabada that bore the laden lagatoi westward to the Gulf of Papua, and its arrival marked the season of departure. In Motu weather-lore the wind is a named power of the seascape rather than a figure of narrative, standing opposed to Lahara, the northwest monsoon, the two alternating through the year.