Unfortunately, this will be a short weather briefing as there will simply not be a lot of weather to talk about. Yesterday, for giggles, we flew the Sailish.com weather drone over the racecourse for FWB and it was very interesting. Edmonds Marina, the Ferry Dock, and the starting area were socked in and stayed that way until around 1600 hrs. The interesting part was that once you got about ½ to ¾ of a mile to the west, it cleared, was warm and beautiful but dead flat calm across the course. It is not much different today nor will it be very different tomorrow. It is going to be very light with large areas of calm. It will be tough just to make it to Scatchet Head unless you change this to a predicted log race run just with engines otherwise you’ll just be drag racing from hole to hole while going very slow.
October 2 500 mb 
October 2 Surface Analysis 
October 3 Surface Forecast 
October 4 500 mb 
October 4 Surface Forecast 
October 5 Surface Forecast 
October 6 500 mb 
October 6 Surface Forecast
The surface charts show the reason for this is a loosely organized weak high-pressure system with five different centers roughly centered over the Pacific Northwest and as you run through the weekend, nothing changes very much. There will be little to no pressure gradient over the area for the weekend. There will be some onshore flow down the Straits which could bring Small Craft Advisories to the Central and Eastern Straits late Saturday and late Sunday but that will be about it for wind this weekend. Don’t shoot the messenger!
Today’s Sat Pic shows the heavy marine layer off the coast as well as the smoke over California which now extends south from the fires and over the Pacific. Very ugly.
Enjoy the weekend, stay safe and wear your mask!
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)