Looks like a pretty nice weekend to be out on the water as we are finally getting to summer-like weather. The surface analysis chart for today and the surface forecast chart for tomorrow show a couple of interesting features. The first being that today’s chart shows that the Pacific High is nowhere to be seen yet and we still have another weak low-pressure system (1013MB) off the coast. Tomorrow’s forecast chart shows no less than eight (8) high-pressure centers with four of them off the coast of California and areas of heavy fog well off the coast from Santa Barbara to the north end of Vancouver Island.
July 12 500MB 
July 12 Surface Analysis 
July 13 Surface Forecast 
July 14 500MB 
July 14 Surface Forecast 
July 16 Surface Forecast
Overall, this keeps an onshore flow coming into the Salish Sea with stronger westerlies developing in the central and eastern Strait of Jdf in the late afternoon and early evening hours. This pattern will hold into early next week.
For the TransPac racers, the folks that started Wednesday are making pretty good time with most driving hard to the SW to stay away from that weak high-pressure system off of Santa Barbara. The group that starts today should have a very pleasant sail with enough wind to get away from the coast by early this evening and into a steady NW breeze of 12-16 knots. They could be on A3’s by Sunday. The big boats which start tomorrow are not going to have as much wind and it will be slow getting past Catalina and San Nicolas.
GO LONGBOARD!
Have a great weekend!
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)