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Weather, Wakes, and Waves on the Lakes
Two great paddles, and weather forecast link
howratpaddler
11/05/09 #7319
Yesterday, Bob Mc and I were tooling around out by the red buoy off Marine Park, when off in the distance appears a large looking steel type of work boat (60 ft maybe) chugging along at what seemed to be 10 - 12mph. We get closer, and a booming voice came out over a loudspeaker: “you'd better get on 'em!” It was Peter. The water was glass and I locked on a roller and rode that thing past Woods' Coffe - gps said over 2 miles. Bob was on his OC-1 and broached a few times, but got some great rides.
Well, today with the wind building all day, it got to be about 3 pm and thinking the Bay beyond my puny comfort level, Bob and I thought; downwinder on Lake Whatcom. We left Lakewood at 4:00, paddled towards Sudden Valley point then turned and got the best and biggest waves I've seen on Lake Whatcom in 35 years. Many times, as we were approaching Strawberry, I saw 11.5 mph, and I don't think that was tide-assisted. Kept on flying all the way towards Bloedel, and as we got closer to Bloedel the wind really started blowing, with gusts close to 50, and that's when I found out that turning an Epic to go 90-degrees to that kind of wind is hard. I literally got blown off as I got close to shore. Was suited up in drysuit, pfd, etc. etc. and my paddle leash held well, but I think I'm going to a stronger cord in that kind of a wind. Fortunately I was close enough to shore I could touch bottom and walk myself in, otherwise I would have wound up on somebody's bulkhead on the north end. Bob could not paddle up wind, so we beached the boats behind some bushes, and it took two of us to carry each boat to the van. So, in a southeast wind that's blowing 35+, the lake can be a decent alternative to heading to the Delta on the Bay.
Now, here is the forecast discussion link for NOAA:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sew/get.php?wfo=sew&pil=AFD&sid=SEW
In the margin in that website page is all kinds of information for different kinds of forecasts. One to go to is Western Washington Zone forecast and go to San Juan, Bellingham. Also, if you go to Current Conditions and look at the satellite, scroll down to infrared, go to either the 2k or 4k western u.s. satellite. Of course, the marine forecast section has all kinds of stuff. But the forecast discussion last Saturday did indeed forecast a quick increase in a due westerly wind for our area. The other interesting weather site, which has more to do with the mountains, but you can extrapolate it for marine conditions also, is to look at the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center forecasts.
Stormy Lake Padden
Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
11/05/09 #7322
Erik and I knocked out 9 miles today on little Lake Padden, in the dark, in 40-50 mph winds. Wow! Furious shadowy mountain trees howling overhead as we looped around the bowl in surreal waters, feeling our way by senses other than sight. We rode the weather front until it peaked and spent itself, and the rain came. Magic. A safe fun alternative to the Bay when its blowing liquid smoke.
