September Weather

I was reviewing my weather station data and was struck at the picture it painted of the entire month.  September started with Mahdee in the Pacific Northwest and includes our transit south to the Sacramento Delta.  Most notable, of course, are the spikes–whether wind, temperature or boat speed: there is the 30 knot wind spike while we were anchored in a sheltered bay and waiting for a weather window to head south; the increase in winds as we got underway and left the sheltered anchorage which occurs at the same time as Mahdee’s SOG rises in the plot; the brief 40 knot wind spike that happened with frontal passage and was accompanied by a shift in wind direction to directly on the nose.  This dropped Mahdee’s speed so that we were bouncing off 0 knots as we drove into wind and waves and it had Brenda and me scrambling to drop the sails at midnight.  The wind-shift occurred right off Newport OR, the visibility went to near zero in fog and we had a fishing fleet to starboard and land on our port side.  Further, we were following the “crab-trap-free” safe transit zone, so we decided to just motor on keeping to our path.  Later, a power boat reported that they had 30-40 knot wind and waves on the nose further off shore, so we made a good decision.

After 18 hours of head winds, the winds abated and Mahdee was able to gain some speed–albeit using the motor.  The water temperature started to rise as we got closer to Point Reyes.  We spent over a day recovering at anchor in Drakes Bay behind Point Reyes before getting underway again.  Our transit into SF Bay was unusual due to the easterly winds which were right on the nose.  Those winds brought triple digit air temperatures and the warmest waters we had seen this year.  We kept moving East until we had anchored in the Sacramento River near some friends and we spent many days doing deferred maintenance and swimming when the air temperature was too hot.  As the daily temperature cycles decreased, the wind speeds increased until–after three sequential nights standing anchor watch with over 20 knots of wind–we decided to move further into the California Delta where it would be more sheltered.  After two moves, the wind speed is notably lower and remained so through the end of the month.

Brenda says that no one is interested in the weather picture–too much data and no one will get it.  So I decided to include some more conventional photos.  Here is a photo of the lighthouse at Cape Flattery at the northwestern most point of the continental US.  Sailing was great here–over 20 knots of wind behind us.  Unfortunately, it didn’t hold–the rest of the trip had headwinds or calm winds.

Beryl was the first to notice the boarders.  Normally, she is a calm crewmember, but the audacity (or maybe it was the fluffiness) of the boarders took her over the edge.  She was running in circles around the chart house–right over the human watch stander–leaving no doubt that something on deck was amiss.

The boarders were very sneaky.  Brenda took numerous photos to document them, but most of them show an empty spot on Mahdee’s deck where–moments before–there was a boarder.  But, she finally captured one on the side deck.  The winds died about the time the fluffy boarders arrived.  The calm brought flies which these fluff balls ate with voracious efficiency, so we kept Beryl locked up below and let them eat their fill.

After eating all the flies, the birds left on their journey and we were left to motor in a dead calm on our journey.  We arrived at Drake’s Bay after midnight, but we are comfortable arriving and anchoring there after dark.

We left the anchorage in Drakes Bay in pre-dawn darkness and headed towards San Francisco so as to arrive at the Golden Gate near low tide.  Our plan was to have good winds and a rising tide push us all the way up into the Sacramento Delta.  The Easterly winds, however, are right on the nose and also bring dust/haze and hot air.

Passing under the Golden Gate close hauled on starboard tack–we were motor sailing into very light headwinds, but the tide is with us.

The hot dry Delta is a welcome change from the cold wet Northwest and SE Alaska. The windmills were barely moving when we arrived, but a week later, they were spinning and it was time to move to a spot where there were no windmills and the winds would remain calmer.

We were almost immobilized by the 100 degree afternoon temperatures, but the water was so refreshing to jump into.  In between swims, I sanded and Brenda varnished.  Mahdee finally got her varnish renewed–a makeover that was long overdue.  We are still enjoying the beauty of the Delta like the sunset below.