Clouds penetrated just a little too far for Corridor dawn patrol, but the wind is ripping everywhere else. With gradients of .12, .13, and .30 to start the day, winds strengths are only headed up! Park your car anywhere east of the cloud line, clamber over the highway barriers, rig on the shoulder and sail. On second thought, don't do that. Southerly upper level flow favors Arlington/Doug's/Celilo/etc today, although with the John Day sensor currently reading "west," The Wall may just be a-ok as well. Look for wind strengths east of Hood River to remain over 30 for much of the day, fading after 5pm.
Tomorrow doesn't look quite as crazy, but that will just give you a chance to rest up. With Portland still buried in clouds and the desert pleasantly warm, look for 21-24 in the Corridor.
Models don't present a clear picture for Saturday. Graphical models call for more wind than Friday, but text models call for more warming in Portland, hence less wind in Hood River. I'll call it sailable at this point, and wait for later to deliver details.
Saturday is questionable, but Sunday looks like a ripper (boat race or Arlington... tough call).
Thanks to Laura (see you at Arlington today) for joining us on Gorgeous last night for a crazy boat race. With gusts in the mid 30's, we had utter chaos with the spinnaker more than once, lost the helm once, and had our 41 foot Nelson-Marek up to 8.5 knots (since we usually make 6-7.5kt, that's exciting). I think we had a much higher adrenaline dose sailing the big boat way overpowered than we would have had on 4.7's at the Hatchery!
Have a fantastic day on the water. Watch out for cougars of all sorts!
Print | posted @ Thursday, August 16, 2007 8:14 AM