Bruce’s Weather Brief October 8-9 Special for PSSC

Bruce’s Weather Brief October 8-9 Special for PSSC

If you’ve been waiting for Mother Nature to give the boat a freshwater rinse, you don’t have long to wait. Both Saturday and Sunday look to be a bit on the wet side. Last night up north in the San Juan’s we had some pretty good breeze, 55 knots at Smith Island, 56 knots at Lopez and today in the central Sound we had 35 knots a couple of times at West Point.

We can probably expect more of the same for Saturday just not quite so much wind in the Islands. For the CYC’s PSSC the morning will start off on the light side, 4-6 from the SE with frontal passage about mid day. This will be followed by SSW breeze of 8-12 building to 15-20 by mid afternoon and easing slightly by late afternoon.

The strongest breeze will be to the north of Kingston on up to Port Townsend in Admiralty Inlet with a strong post frontal breeze from the SSW along the coast.

By Sunday morning the breeze will come around to north and be in the 5-8 knot range until it goes away in the mid afternoon. Sorry about that.

For tides in the Race area:

0700      Max Flood           1.09 knots

1036      Slack

1400      Max Ebb                 .37 knots

1706      Slack

Sunday

0748      Max Flood            1.05 knots

1136      Slack

1418      Max Ebb                 .34 knots

1800      Slack

 

So what does this mean in the Race Area off of Shilshole? Since we’ve had a fair amount of rain and a stead southerly breeze you will find that the flood tide is somewhat diminished by a wind driven southerly surface current and the freshwater coming out of the Duwamish and the Ship Canal. For the morning races there will still be a an advantage to holding starboard off the line in order to get the knock that will occur closer to the beach. How far in you’ll want to go will of course depend upon where they place the weather mark. As you get closer to frontal passage, baro rising, ceiling lifting, some patchy clearing to the southwest, this will warn you that the shift from the southeasterly to the south-southwesterly is coming. The ebb will start first on the beach so watch your cog and sog especially if you are on the north course as the flood will last slightly longer mid Sound.

Before you leave the house check the wind at West Point and what’s going on with the Ferry weather. Also check the surface baro readings around the Northwest (http://www.atmos.washington.edu/cgi-bin/latest.cgi?sfcplots-wwa) to see what sort of gradient we’ll be dealing with for the morning and then if there’s enough time between races check the VHF wx to see how that gradient has changed. Remember when you check this chart the barometric pressure is the green numbers and it’s the last three digits. For instance on this chart Bellingham (KBLI) says 162, that means it is actually 1016.2 millibars. Boeing Field (KBFI) 173 means 1017.3 millibars.

It’s always a good idea to wear your life jacket when out on the water and if it has been a while since you’ve been out in 15+ knots of wind why not have a quick review of safety procedures before you leave the dock on Saturday morning.

Also, you might check the surface chart for Tuesday and notice what is over the Aleutian Islands. Yes, that is a monster low pressure system, 966 millibars with plenty of 40-50 knot winds on its south side. So how does this compare to Hurricane Matthew? When Matthew turned into a Cat 4 storm south of Jamaica and Haiti it was almost 800 miles across and had a low pressure reading of 939 millibars. The Aleutian low is about 1200 miles across. So Matthew is smaller, much lower pressure so more tightly wound hence the higher winds.

Have a great time and be safe.

 

Bruce’s Brief: Weekend weather for October 1-2, Foul Weather Bluff and Thermopylae

Bruce’s Brief: Weekend weather for October 1-2, Foul Weather Bluff and Thermopylae

Yes, it really is that late and Halloween is just around the corner, scary. It has been a great week and this weekend starts the first of the great fall regattas with the Foulweather Bluff Race out of Edmonds and the Thermopylae Regatta at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.friday-radar

As you can see from the surface charts, the weather picture is still not settled. This afternoon’s surface chart shows a dissipating front extending from a very weak low pressure system (1017mb) off the coast headed towards us. This is confirmed by the coastal Doppler radar. This probably means we’ll stay dry for the Husky game tonight however there may be showers around tomorrow morning and Sunday. Regardless, there simply isn’t much rain in our future.

The other interesting feature is this very elongated high pressure system over the Pacific. At 1039mb it is still fairly strong however when they are anything but round they can be easily pushed around by low pressure systems and the jet stream. Note the jet stream for today and then 96 hours out. Mother Nature doesn’t like big bends so as you can see that bend in the 564mb line goes away and the jet stream takes on a much more direct shot into the Pacific NW. This should be of interest to all of us because in the years following an El Niño event and going into a neutral or minor La Niña phase, like this year, remnants of typhoons can hitch rides on the jet stream and come into the Pacific Northwest as high wind events. Remember the Columbus Day storm in 1962? This was a remnant of Typhoon Freda. Nothing out there now. However, southeast Asia has been hit by two Super Typhoons recently and you can bet we’ll be tracking where those remains are going. Remember also that Typhoon/Hurricane season doesn’t end until 1 December.

So what does this mean for the Foulweather Bluff Race? Unfortunately it looks like a real mixed bag of light southerlies for the start, with slightly more wind west of Scatchet Head. This will gradually drop to light and variable by mid afternoon, becoming a light westerly before switching back to a 5-10 knot southerly in the early evening. Try to finish before 1400 hours.

Tides at Admiralty Inlet

0935      max ebb                2.9 knots

1300      slack

1535      max flood             1.8 knots

1800      slack

Slightly better news for Victoria as the southeasterly could be in the 15 knot range and last until mid afternoon before it becomes light and variable. Sunday looks like a light, drainage northerly until a weak westerly comes down the Straits in the late afternoon.

Have a great weekend and if you’d like a customized forecast for your event, just drop me a note.

Ed. note: Some of you race organizers should take advantage of Bruce’s offer. Competitors have a much better time if they have a sound basic weather outlook to work from (or disagree with!) and it sets a tone for an event and future ones of good seamanship and competition. I made the Bruce email link to my email address. Trust me, I’ll get anything you send me to him – I certainly don’t want the pressure of forecasting if I’ve got Bruce to lean on!

 

Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta – Bellingham Bay Sends Dinghies Scurrying Home Saturday, Delivers Perfect Conditions Sunday

Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta – Bellingham Bay Sends Dinghies Scurrying Home Saturday, Delivers Perfect Conditions Sunday

Flying Junior dinghy found. Skipper and crew nowhere to be found. Where are the kids?

That scenario has got to be a race organizer’s worst nightmare. But that’s what the race organizers at Bellingham YC’s Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta faced for a few moments on Saturday.

Quickly, skipper and crew were found on shore, quite healthy and happy and somewhat oblivious to the commotion they’d caused. Regatta chairman Mike Poulos let them know that they’d freaked everybody out and if you leave the course, particularly if you leave your boat there, TELL SOMEBODY.

The good news is that everybody was fine. Even the boat came through unscathed! No doubt lessons were learned all the way around.

But the regatta’s real hero was Carlos Abisambra. When the wind squalls ran through Bellingham Bay just as the dinghies were reaching the starting area for an 11 am start, the Bay was littered with overturned boats. At least eight were over simultaneously. It was quite a sight.

I’d say a couple of gusts were in the low to mid 30 knots, but the Bellingham Buoy never recorded more than 30. However, the private “Viewpoint” station on shore, cited by Sailflow, had a gust of 45 mph (39 knots) and another of 40 mph. Regardless, it was nasty.viewcrest

Carlos smartly tucked himself and his Laser in some protected waters to wait out the worst of the winds and see how things played out. Sure enough the race committee rather pointedly sent those of us in the starting area home, probably about the time they found the empty FJ. Carlos wondered if he could help, and headed to a different, nearby capsized FJ with two tired and cold girls who were clearly struggling. With the help of the less exhausted of the two girls, Carlos righted the boat and saw them on their way home. In the meantime, he was returned to his drifting Laser and sailed back in.

saturday-save-by-carlos-of-seattle-no-starts-just-wipeouts
Carlos Abisambra in action.

Once in the harbor, he and others including Mike Powell and Miles Johannessen of the 505 fleet heard that an abandoned Laser Radial was just about to run up on the rocks, so the two grabbed a RIB and headed out. Carlos once again took to the water, swam to the Radial, righted it and sailed it home. A video of that rescue by Peter Hallett is here.

Carlos took a well-earned nap that afternoon, but found the energy and courage to sing karaoke that night. And the next day he overcame a rough start to finish third in the Laser fleet.

While Bellingham Bay dished up unsailable conditions Saturday, it came through with flying colors on Sunday. The day started with 12-15, diminishing to <8 for the sixth and final race. The RC did a great job keeping everything moving, and all the classes enjoyed great racing. The 505s were out in force with a fleet of 21 boats, with Paul Von Grey and Kerry Poe winning by a single point over the second and third place finishers who finished tied. The Tasars showed up with five boats, the Lasers had 11 starters and the Radials and FJs has six boats each. Results here.

Bruce’s Brief: Weekend weather Sept 17-18th

We all knew it had to end and sure enough, it looks like this is the weekend where you’ll need to be thinking about changing those mooring lines over to dealing with our winter southerlies. As you can see from the 500MB chart, the jet stream, the heavy 564 line is now almost a straight line going right across the Pacific and curving north just off our coast and into SE Alaska. This will allow frontal systems to have a more direct shot at the Pacific Northwest. The current surface forecast shows just such an event headed our way on Saturday.

We are already seeing rain on the Doppler Radar at Langley Hill on the coast which will make landfall this evening and be fairly widespread over Puget Sound by tomorrow morning. This will mean southerly to southeasterly breeze in the Sound with light and variable breeze in the Straits. By mid afternoon tomorrow this will all start to transition to a more post frontal situation with a westerly coming down the Straits (15-20 at Race Rocks) while we’ll have a westerly flow through the Chehalis Gap which will then be a southwesterly breeze in the South Sound. What does that sound like? Let’s not see all the same hands.

Yep, a classic fall convergent zone which will set up from 1500 through the early evening with plenty of rain from Seattle north.

Sunday looks better but still with scattered showers around. Winds will be light in the morning however by late afternoon we have 10-15 knots of northwesterly, so don’t put the summer mooring lines away yet just be prepared for anything.

Bruce’s Brief: Weekend Weather September 10-11

Bruce’s Brief: Weekend Weather September 10-11

Just when you thought summer was screeching to a halt, Mother Nature once again surprises us. Saturday looks pretty nice and just about perfect for power boaters, not so good for sailors until mid to late afternoon when a northwesterly will finally fill down the Sound. Sunday will be distinctly cooler as the remnants of a front pass over the Northwest Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Sunday morning will be cloudy however that will gradually burn off as the day goes on. Next week looks absolutely stunning with highs in the mid to upper 70’s. Welcome to Indian Summer in the great Pacific Northwest.

The Straits will display the usual pattern of breeze (10-15 knots) just east of Race Rocks which will gradually build to 20+ knots of westerly from mid afternoon on. This will fill down the Sound into the evening and then start gradually backing off into dawn on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning the Straits will remain fairly light and variable while in the Sound a northerly will start to come down in the early afternoon and build to around 10 knots by Sunday evening.

All in all, a perfect weekend to be out on the water. So go out, boat safely, and have a great weekend. As you’ve probably noticed, the leaves are turning early this year and squirrels are pretty active bulking up for the winter. All of which seems to indicate a cooler and wetter winter than normal. The NWS will have their big confab the end of this month with their forecast for the winter and I’ll provide you with those results.

Bruce’s Weather Brief: Don’t Let Today’s Rain Keep You at the Dock for Labor Day Weekend

Don’t be dismayed by the rain this morning over the Sound, it’s not going to last. There will be scattered showers over the area through tomorrow but generally diminishing. As you can see from the surface charts the Pacific High is starting to weaken and that is allowing these weak frontal systems to sweep over the area. The upper air charts continue to feature that cutoff low that has persisted the entire summer over BC and SE Alaska. Summer is coming to an end but for Labor Day weekend it won’t be all bad.

For today you’ll have southerlies if you’re headed up to the San Juan Islands with some convergent zone activity from Edmonds to Everett. By Saturday morning the winds will be generally light and variable becoming westerly in the Straits and northerly in the Sound by mid afternoon. This pattern will repeat itself on Sunday with more clearing and hopefully more sunshine.

For Monday you can expect light southerlies in the Sound in the morning slightly stronger breeze in the San Juan Islands. This will decrease as the afternoon approaches with winds becoming northerly in the Sound and westerly in the Straits.

As I said, not all bad and at least we’re not trying to do anything on the East Coast or Hawaii this weekend.

Enjoy and have a safe weekend!

SeaFair Weekend Weather

As summer begins to wind down towards Labor Day the weather continues to be very interesting. If you just look at the surface charts it looks pretty much like an ideal SeaFair weekend. The devil however is in the upper air charts where we still have that upper level low that has been bedeviling us all summer.

The Saturday morning 500MB chart shows that low with an attached front just off the coast. That will make its way over us late Sunday afternoon and early evening with a bit of rain. Hopefully SeaFair and the Blue Angels will be done by the time it gets here.

Overall for boaters in places other than Lake Washington, it will be a very nice weekend with the one exception being the central Straits of Juan de Fuca especially from Sheringham Point to Hein Bank where this afternoon and into Saturday you could have 35+ knots of westerly. Not unusual . Then as this weak front approaches there really won’t be more than about 15-20 knots in the Straits until late Sunday afternoon and into Mon morning as a the post-frontal westerly fills down the Straits again.

Have a great weekend and for those of you going to Lake Washington remember that all forms of law enforcement with be out there as this has become a great new revenue stream for any municipality bordering the Lake and probable cause means just being out there on the water. You are subject to a compliance inspection and if there are any signs of alcohol you can be asked to take a sobriety test. They will have the mobile sobriety check points set up at various launching ramps, where if you fail you can be booked, taken directly to jail, and your boat impounded. So be smart and have fun just don’t be stupid.

Have a safe and sober weekend!

Vic-Maui Bradulations

Brad Baker, one of the most (if not the most) successful navigators in Vic-Maui history, has a wrapup piece he called Reflections, but which I’m going to call Vic-Maui Bradulations, on this year’s race in the swiftsureyahts.com blog. He’s very generous and genuine with his praise of the fleet. It’s clear he missed being out there and taking advantage of what turned out to be near perfect record breaking conditions.

I thank Brad for allowing me to use his analyses on sailish.com. He thinks the new record can be broken. You get the sense he’s far from done with this race. 

REFLECTIONS

With the Vic-Maui nearly a done deal, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the 2016 race. I don’t know about you other armchair sailors, but I have had a tremendous amount of fun watching this year’s race. It’s had a little bit of everything. It’s had some drama with Crossfire’s early retirement from the race. I sincerely hope that after licking their wounds, and taking a few lessons from the experience, that they will be back in 2018. I suppose I was a harbinger of doom when in my third installment I said there would likely be boats with steering issues. I think it was the day after writing that the J-109, Mountain, retired with rudder bearing issues. Later, Forty had their steering quadrant fail. There were lots of reports of broken halyards and blown up spinnakers. Most recently the specter of tropical storm Darby made things interesting. What is foremost in my mind, though, was the weather pattern itself. It turned out to be a near perfect scenario for an elapsed time record breaking pace. And there were four boats in the race capable of breaking the record — a perfect storm.

Looking back to the few days prior to the first start, the forecast didn’t look all that promising for a quick race. The GFS weather model showed a broad ridge of weak high pressure extending nearly to the US west coast. Had this transpired the fleet would have had to make the choice between hugging the coast, sailing extra distance south, and faced with a nearly dead down sail the rest of the way to Hawaii, verses going shorter distance and trying to bust through the light air ridge of higher pressure. Either way would have made for a long race. The good news, if you can call it that, is weather models become much less reliable at more than four days out. Thankfully this was the case, because by the time the sleds started the forecast had flipped to a very different pattern. The new forecast was for building high pressure to move west, well offshore, and a bit north of where you would normally expect. This was ideal, as it would produce a broad wind field with average winds averaging just over 20 knots for thousands of miles! And from there, it would all be down wind for the fleet. The forecast confidence was high as nearly all the weather models from various agencies were showing basically the same thing. This forecast is what eventually came to pass. The beauty in this pattern was that with the high pressure located so far to the NW competitors could cut the corner early and sail a shorter distance and with the exceptional 1040mb high, there would be plenty of pressure gradient, i.e. wind, to spare. The stage was set for a record breaking race. Navigators still needed to get it right, but just as much of a premium was now on raw boatspeed, and holding it together for the long haul. With the above normal winds there was also a premium on managing breakages and wear.

Here is the early forecasts. this screen shot is taken from the GFS model came out on July 7th. IIt is Valid for 0500 PDT on July 18. It shows a ridge of weak high pressure extending all the way to the US west coast, with a broad swath of light wind blocking the Vic-Maui fleet. Luckily this forecast was to change.

Here is the early forecasts. This screen shot is taken from the GFS model that came out on July 7th. It is Valid for 0500 PDT on July 18. It shows a ridge of weak high pressure extending all the way to the US west coast, with a broad swath of light wind blocking the Vic-Maui fleet. Luckily this forecast was to change.

Here is the forecast from from the day the sleds started on July 12th. It to is valid for the same time and day 0500 July 18th. This shows a much more robust more symmetric high pressure system with plenty of wind across the course.

Here is the forecast from from the day the sleds started on July 12th. It to is valid for the same time and day 0500 July 18th. This shows a much more robust more symmetric high pressure system with plenty of wind across the course.

Here is the actual conditions on July 18th 0500. Very close to the forecast issued on the 12th.

Here is the actual conditions on July 18th 0500. Very close to the forecast issued on the 12th.

The well prepared boats shined. A huge and hearty congratulations goes out to Gavin, Jason and the crew on Valkyrie. Well done! You own that record! I’m sure they had a few trials and tribulations along the way, but it was hard to see where they occurred from watching the tracker. From a navigators point of view, Valkyrie sailed a very clean/smart course and were obviously very well prepared. I’m envious of their accomplishment and hope to one day be aboard a Vic-Maui record setting boat.

Next is Kinetic, again hearty congratulations are in order. I’ve known David Sutcliffe for a number of years and he is obviously no stranger to this race. Some might say he practically is this race! Kinetic too sailed a smart, never gave up and showed they had the pace. Congratulations on the first overall corrected time victory! It’s well deserved.

There are a few others I’d like to call out. Longboard, holy crap! This is a 35-foot boat, you know it had to get hairy for those guys at times being that small and going that fast. You could tell they pushed hard. Well done.

String Theory, nice job John and crew. Watching Class 2’s String Theory on the tracker you could just see that they had their s**t together! Obviously she was well prepared and kept down time to a minimum. I remember as their competitors, Equus, managed to get farther to the right, with better leverage and a hotter angle, String Theory showed that not only did they have the pace, but they had the preparation to hold on to the first place slot. Well done.

Raindrop showed us all how it’s done, completely dominating class three. Had they not had the worst starting conditions, with light air for two days, we might be congratulating them now on a first overall.

I know of two ocean race first time newbies that put in good performances. Equus, in Class 2, a brand new out of the box Jeanneau 50, looked impressive and I’m sure gave String Theory a reasonable scare. I bet Equus has learned from the experience and if Dean and crew come back next time, look out Class 2!

My weathered Swiftsure cap also goes off to Joe and crew aboard Canard in Class 3. Nice job pulling out a 2nd place and pushing hard at the finish.

Finally, I want to congratulate the fleet as a whole. Finishing the Vic-Maui Race is quite an accomplishment. As Bill Huseby, sailing on Raindrop, told me in an email, “This is not brochure sailing”. The conditions were very challenging. The storms in the tropical eastern pacific pushed competing waive trains across the course. The seas were reported as very confused. Joe Gaffney, skipper of Canard, at one point called it a “Rolly polly s**t show”. This was no picnic, especially for the first timers. Well done everyone.

Then there was tropical storm Darby! Watching the weather early on I, and anyone else who paying attention, could see the series of tropical depressions spinning up every 4 or 5 days just off Mexican waters. Storm after storm seemed to be aimed right at the Hawaiian Islands. I wrote (and I guess in the end it was true) that these storms wouldn’t likely be a safety concern. Darby nearly made a liar out of me, and easily could have been a safety issue if an earlier predicted track had come to pass. For a couple of days there my focus had shifted from what is the best route to get there fastest, to what is the safest route. Thankfully, in the end, Darby clipped the big island, which took out quite a bit of steam, then passed south of Maui a much less powerful storm for having interacted with the big island. Likely the biggest casualty from the effects of Darby was Expresso, who in the light air wake of the storm spent five hours sitting in the Pailolo channel within sight of the finish and likely cost them 2nd place.

This was the forecast track of tropical storm Darby. This track would have mowed through the fleet with 50 knot winds. Luckily the forecast track changed

This was the forecast track of tropical storm Darby. This track would have mowed through the fleet with 50 knot winds. Luckily the forecast track changed

Here is the Darby forecast track issued on Saturday the 23rd. This is very close to what the actual track ended up being. It takes Darby over the big island and south of Maui. Much less of a threat to the fleet.

Here is the Darby forecast track issued on Saturday the 23rd. This is very close to what the actual track ended up being. It takes Darby over the big island and south of Maui. Much less of a threat to the fleet.

I’ll conclude with this. It may stand for some time, but the elapsed time record is still certainly beatable. I’m not trying to diminish what Valkyrie, Kinetic and Westerlyhave achieved. They sailed very well and I think it would be extremely hard for another TP 52 to break this record. The conditions were very good this time around. The fact remains the record is now held by a 52-foot boat. It’s likely going to take a big turbo sled, maybe something with a canting keel (or perhaps Crossfire?). But the fact remains, the record is still very beatable. Bring it on!

DSC_9436 croppedBrad Baker has been navigator on seven of his nine Vic-Maui races, with two first to finish finishes, two first overall finishes and 4 more first in class finishes.

Brad is a principal at Swiftsure Yachts.

Race Committee, Fleet Navigates Darby

It is looking good for the Vic-Maui fleet with regards to Darby. Rain Drop got in well before the Darby, followed by Kraken. The Dufour 45 Alegria is nearly in, as can be seen in the tracker screen shot. Alegria

The other boats have all taken the advice of the RC and weather experts and work east and south to avoid Darby. They’re all going to sail in on the heals of the storm.

The boats already in have all made provisions by either hunkering down at Lahaina, moving to Ali Wai Basin in Honolulu, or just being ready to hoist anchor and find safe refuge if the storm hits hard.

In the meantime Darby is now into its assault on the Big Island.

Darby is the Big Story

darbymap
Darby on Saturday as predicted by Predictwind.

As the crew of Equus and String Theory crews breath sighs of relief at having finished, and with the mighty Atalanta safely finished, all eyes are turning to Tropical Storm Darby. stringtheory

I gave a shout to Brad Baker to see what he thinks might happen. Here’s what he says: The center of the storm should be over the directly over Lahaina at about 4am on Sunday morning.  It’s looking like the storm will hit the big Island dead on.  Then continue over Maui.  If this happens the big island will likely take a lot of steam out of the storm if you know what I mean.  Raindrop should be well ahead of the action.

Equus.
Equus.

So, let’s hope that the Drop doesn’t spontaneously develop the ability to plane like a TP 52 and put herself in harm’s way.

According to the tracker, while Equus finished ahead of String Theory, it’s String Theory that corrected out ahead. Congratulations to all on what must have been an epic ride.