Yeah, it’s getting cooler and cloudier but no reason to give up on boating yet. When you look at the Sat pictures for today you’ll see that there simply isn’t much moisture in the system for this weekend. Scattered drizzle at best. The good news for sailors is that we’ll have wind in the Center Sound for both days. The bad news is that if the boat is still up in the Gulf or San Juan Islands the trip back might get a little rough, especially on Sunday when the next front approaches.
Click to enlarge.
You can see from the charts that we’ll have a frontal system that will move into the area tonight and then weaken by Saturday morning. This will be followed by a weak onshore post-frontal flow through the day on Saturday. Another front will approach the coast on Sunday and move inland Sunday night. This will create a strong pre-frontal flow of southeasterly wind over the area especially from Point No Point north into the San Juan and Gulf Islands. The central and south Sound will see 10-15 knot south-southeasterly wind most of the day. In other words, great sailing!
The Tuesday (11 Sept Chart) has a number of interesting features the primary one being a medium strength low (988MB) in the central Pacific which will have the effect of further degrading what is left of the Pacific High. 
This will have the added effect of driving Hurricane Olivia on a course that is slightly south of due west and putting the Hawaiian Islands squarely in the crosshairs. As if they haven’t had enough rain already this year and then there’s yet another Tropical depression forming right astern of Olivia which will probably follow a similar path. The problem will continue to be that the jet stream is well north over the Pacific and that 550MB Upper level low will remain a cutoff Low-Pressure system that won’t move very fast. See the 11 Sept 500MB chart.
Fall is definitely approaching at least it won’t really rain until after the weekend!
Enjoy and be safe.
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)