What a difference a couple of hours make. We go from an ice-coated skating rink to freezing rain, to just plain rain. The problem will be in the areas that didn’t get cleared today as freezing conditions will continue into this evening until the warm rain starts to fall. Then it will all go away probably by noon tomorrow. The upcoming week will mark a distinct change in our weather.
Today’s surface analysis chart and sat pic show the remains of our ridge of high pressure that has been protecting us, deteriorating and moving east. While out in the Pacific there are a series of relatively strong low-pressure systems with attached frontal systems that will ride the jet stream(see today’s 500MB charts) right into the Pacific NW. Gone is the lowland snow while the valley rain will ramp up and the mountain snow will continue. It is after all the first week of winter so welcome to the real Pacific NW.
The coast and the San Juan Islands will bear the brunt of these systems with the possibility of gale-force winds as these systems come ashore. The Inland waters will see 15-25 knots of SE-S-SW breeze. This will continue into the upcoming week as each strong frontal system will bring roughly the same conditions.
sailish.com Boat-of-the-Year!
The Committee started early on this project because it was the first year of presenting this prestigious award. Then, after many Zoom meetings, it was decided that the Committee should meet in person for the final ballot. After a couple of hours of discussion, the result was an almost unanimous decision on the first ballot. The Committee then proceeded to request that we continue to deliver egg nog to the room even though the voting was over.
It is a great honor to present this year’s Sailish.Com Boat-of-the–of-the-Year Award to the mighty Bieker 35 Longboard! Peter Salusbury and his team out of West Vancouver Yacht Club had a truly exceptional year winning all three of the major races held in the Pacific NW. Those races were South Straits, Swiftsure, and Round the County, all of which had large and very competitive fleets. The Committee felt it was important to recognize the fact that Longboard races in the ORC group which is a measurement rule division, with no arbitrary ratings here. Plus Longboard is one of the smallest boats in all of ORC. That, however, didn’t keep Longboard from always finishing up with the bigger boats. They also consistently and intuitively went the right way on these long courses which is a real testament to Peter and his team and the way they run the boat.
Congratulations Longboard!
Note: The Committee of which Bruce speaks (side note that Bruce is currently in 72 degree weather wearing shorts and is nowhere near the ice he’s writing about ) will feature the STAPYs in a separate post. The Committee invites our readers to submit their nominees, because, face it, you see a lot of things we don’t. KH
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)