Spring Cruise 2021

Ward H

.
Nov 7, 2011
3,645
Catalina 30 Mk II Barnegat, NJ
I used to look at the forecast and decide if it was worth driving the 1 1/4 hour to the boat. Then I smartened up.
I drive to the boat to check the weather:

If the cabin top is wet, I cozy up inside.
If the cabin top is dry, I cast the lines.
If there are large white caps I reef.
If the water is mirror smooth I motor.

Now my "forecasts" are much more accurate.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
If the cabin top is wet, I cozy up inside.
If the cabin top is dry, I cast the lines.
If there are large white caps I reef.
If the water is mirror smooth I motor.
Truly a wise method, Ward. I like it.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Hi Terry.
It is Good Friday and 70 minutes before noon. SO I looked at the weather on Windy and there is good news and bad news in the forecast.

The Pacific High that has influenced the past couple of days is sticking around into the beginning of next week. You should have nice sunshine to depart and begin your adventure into the San Juans.

About late Wednesday one of the Low Pressure cells will find it's way off the coast and start to change the flow of air from Southerly (at the start of the week) to out of the North West. This will bring some strong winds, clouds and rain to finish out the week.

A spring cruise weather kind of metaphor for this weekend we celebrate.

Joyful sunshine, downer rain showers, then a rebirth and return to better conditions.
Safe cruising.
Spring Cruise Weather.jpg
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
My friend Rufus has a little less promising outlook. Take it all with a gain of salt to season your views.

Good Friday 2021

We respectfully honor this Good day, as have millions worldwide for nearly 2,000 years. Wall Street is closed, as it has been on Good Friday since the 1880’s. Our ‘always open' weather has been delightful for a few days now. Grab that colored Mug for your morn’n WxCafé fix.

Today will be a few degrees cooler than the last 2 days (which brought on 70+ degree warmth, setting off Spring Fever across the PNW). Clouds around the Puget Sound will push away soon. Saturday will present another warm Spring day, as well. Easter should start out dry (go Egg Hunters), with increasing chance for cooler temps & showers late day/evening, esp north of Chehalis as an approaching cold front arrives from the coast of BC.

Monday & Tue next week will be notably cool with additional showers scattered about. A weak system, much like Easter’s, may bring back cloudiness over the Puget Sound & north by Thu. The balance of the PNW should remain mild and mostly sunny. Our call is that next week will be fairly decent in terms of overall Spring weather for outdoor work & farming.

A pool of cold air is charting to form over the Gulf of Alaska by the end of next week. Timing & position of this cold April air mass will have impact on the PNW. Models were indicating this pattern would shift over the PNW by the weekend of Apr 10,11 - making wx messy with rain, wind & colder temps. Miserable was our forecast earlier before models backed off the misery. Well Patron, we cannot rule that solution out just yet. Other model scenarios hold off the blustery rain until Sunday the 11 or even the early part of the following week, which if verified, would yield warmer temps on Fri and Sat, Apr 9,10. We’ll hold our Mugs in waiting.

Week of Apr 12-16 has been consistently trending wet & cool. Definitely not pollinator-friendly for cherry blossoms, so let’s hope the models are way off. California may also get in on the April showers & below seasonal temps. The weekend of Apr 17,18 is just coming into view - as WARM & dry.

“It is possible that a man can live twice as long if he didn’t spend the first half of his life acquiring habits that shorten the other half?"

-Rufus
 
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Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Oh the weather outside is delightful. The forecast next week looks delightful, also. A rendezvous is in the making.
 
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Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Thank you for the forecast, weather Honcho. Looks promising. Fingers and toes crossed.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Don’t get too crossed up or you may experience the fate of Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Oh, John. You're such a wet blanket. Ireland is not on my itinerary. :D
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
It would be fun. Wrong Way was supposed to be heading west like you.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Please forgive me. I’ve spent the weekend with the grandkids. Among the movies was an Easter Bunny movie that had the Easter Bunny locating his candy making factory on Easter Island. And like Santa in one night he visits all the homes leaving candy and Easter Eggs for children around the world, unless they don’t believe.

Granted it was fictional and far fetched. But figuring you were headed out anyway I threw it out there as a possible destination.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Among the movies was an Easter Bunny movie that had the Easter Bunny locating his candy making factory on Easter Island.
Speaking of the Easter Bunny, been to Watmough Bay a number of times. A very nice well protected anchorage.This past Tuesday was the first time I went ashore and also hiked to the top of the cliff, about 500 feet elevation, doing it in about twenty minutes. Two places were a bit dicey, otherwise a well groomed trail, working up a good sweat. Someone constructed a rope swing at the summit, so gave it a try. Quite the view.

Hard to believe, but that rascal Easter Bunny does get around where you would least expect him. As I'm climbing the trail to the rope swing, something colorful caught my view out of the corner of my eye...wait for it, wait for it...a brightly colored yellow and pink Easter egg nestled in this patch of grass. I'll post a picture later on just to prove my point. A bit further on there was a family with two young girls enjoying the site. I asked them if they were the guilty party that left the Easter egg. Nope, they exclaimed! Never saw it. A mystery left unsolved.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Returned yesterday from a spring week on the water. Drove to the boat Sunday afternoon with plans to cast off Monday morning and follow the ebb out of the ditch to Eagle Harbor. Called my boating buddy who had plans to do a rendezvous somewhere around the islands. He and Jandera had left Port Townsend after a couple of days there and were just passing Smith Island on their way to Watmough Bay. Okay, we'll see you there later Monday. Made a fuel stop in Anacortes, then around the corner through Guemes Channel and south towards Watmough Bay. Wind on the nose, so motored most all the way.

Sunny skies, but chilly wind. Arrived in the bay mid afternoon where Tom was anchored way out. Two other boats already there so I headed for the vacant county mooring buoy located at the southeast head. Watmough has a very good anchorage, but shallow. Good mud/sand holding with mostly ten feet depth throughout the Bay at low water. As I came up on the buoy, I saw that it was upside down with the anchoring chain exposed. Yuck! The chain was almost completely corroded through. Decided instead to drop the hook close to the head at seven feet with a low tide approaching.

Got a good set on the anchor and settled in for a couple days of relaxation. Tom and Jandira invited me over for dinner, which I obliged. Contributed a fruit salad and some snacks for the event. Enjoyed a delicious dinner of Mahi Mahi, biscuits, green salad and a new IPA that was quite good, called Bodhizafa. Must get some for the fridge.

Tuesday I rowed ashore and hiked to the 500 foot elevation cliff summit, which worked up quite sweat, but worth it. A couple of places were pretty dicey, but the trail was mostly well groomed. Panaroma view at the top on a clear sunny day made the effort worthwhile. Tried out a rope swing at the top, an Easter egg planted by the Easter Bunny caught me by surprise and a family of four with two young girls from Roche Harbor having lunch. Invited Tom and Jandira over for a beef stroganoff dinner on Belle-Vie Tuesday night.

My sail plan included returning to Anacortes to pick up the Admiral for a couple more days around the islands. Weather turned to cold and rain Wednesday. Caught the flood back to Anacortes with a brisk southerly; a very nice lumpy sail all the way to Guemes Channel west entrance. Advised the Admiral, perhaps another day, knowing she would not enjoy the cold and wet weather conditions. Stayed the night at the Anacortes Yacht Club reciprocal dock with the heat pump keeping the boat warm.

All in all a very nice week on the water and some great sail time. Few boats out this time of the year. Finally was able to rendezvous with Tom and his new boat, a nicely equipped late model 38 foot Nauticat ketch.They live aboard their boat in Friday Harbor.
 
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