Good morning sailors!
We've figured out something important about Arlington. More river flow is good there. If The Wall is washed out (as it's going to be for quite a while, I think), Arlington is the place to be. How, you ask, do you know the river flow? Well, thanks to Big Air Johnny (he's the one on those fancy red and white Simmer sails) who provided the links, you'll be able to check them at the windblog website as soon as I manage to post them.
Today looks like another find day of windsurfing in the Gorge. Gradients are already at .14. Clouds crowd the Corridor, setting up a good early start at Mosier and Doug's. As the burning ball in the sky has a chance to eradicate a few clouds, the Hatchery and Event Site will pick up to the 25-29 range as well. Be careful sailing any locations west of The Dalles dam. With the river so high, a lot of debris has been washed into the channel. Watch for floating logs (I'd tell you to watch for submerged logs, but the water's so cloudy, there's no chance of that), drifting downed windsurfers, and cows swimming for high ground. Don't watch for sturgeon, because they're all balled up below
Bonneville dam.
The weather picture gets complicated after today. High pressure moves far off the coast and an upper level low hangs out in Eastern Oregon. Normally we'd welcome the low, but it's a wandering low, on a visionquest across the PNW, and nobody can predict where it will go next. No, really. NOAA can't say anything about its behavior, so I can't say much about the wind. For now, let's say winds will blow in the low teens on Friday and rain will fall on Saturday.
Basically, if you can hit the river today, do so.
You guys missed a heck of a sailboat race yesterday. We started in five knots of wind, sailed to the Hatch, turned around and set the spinnaker. All was good going under the bridge (except for the high water that gave us only a foot or two of clearance), and all was good until Bingen, where a 40-knot gust tossed most of the boats, including outs, onto their sides. And who says sailboat racing isn't exciting?
Have a great day everyone! I'll see you at Cheap later!
Print | posted @ Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:59 AM