Heavy Weather

[waterdog]

Here's today's forecast off the West Coast of Vancouver Island:

Winds
Issued 04:00 AM PST 02 March 2011
Today Tonight and Thursday
Hurricane force wind warning in effect.
Wind southeast 50 to 65 knots becoming west 50 to 65 this morning then diminishing to southwest 35 to 45 early this evening. Wind diminishing to southwest 25 to 35 Thursday morning and to 15 to 25 Thursday afternoon.


Waves
Issued 04:00 AM PST 02 March 2011
Today Tonight and Thursday
Seas 4 to 6 metres building to 7 to 10 late this morning then subsiding to 5 to 7 early this evening. Seas subsiding to 3 to 5 Thursday morning and to 2 to 3 Thursday evening.

Yikes the wave heights are in meters.   I can't really think of a boat that I would like to be in in 33 foot seas.   I guess the upside is the wind would be calm in the troughs...

[Ralph Masters]

Try kite boarding and leave the big boat tied securely.

[John Langford]

I was out on a boys' cruise single-handing in the Canadian Gulf Islands last week (reading break at the university) and it was so cold and windy that we actually had freezing spray on the boats when sailing to weather. The temperature was 30 F (before wind chill) much of the week and with 20 knots of NE wind it felt like Cape Horn. At night, a 1500 watt Caframo heater just brought the cabin up to about 50F. I would turn on the the new Dickinson heater in the morning and get back into the sleeping bag until the cabin was up to a balmy 58F. There is no question that the accurate phrase is "climate change", not "global warming"!

We may be sailing all winter up here in the Pacific Northwest but I can't wait for spring.