Hi Dave,
I just finished copying the .zip historical data for five reporting stations on Whidbey Island into the NOAA search format. Some of the stations have been keeping hourly records on windspeed since 1984! I set the search trigger threshold for a minimum of steady 20 knots of wind 4 hours per day or greater. In 2012 there were 104 days on Whidbey Island that met the aforementioned criteria.
I then broke down the direction of the days from 130 degrees to 200 degrees and 200 degrees to 300 degrees. There were 36 sailable "Westerly" days at Joseph Whidbey and 68 sailable "South Easterly" days at Ebey landing in 2012.
I also looked at all of the data for this Fall, September 1st - December 1st, while I was overseas working. It sounds like you guys haven't been getting much wind locally. Using the same search criteria above there were 21 days in that three month stretch where the wind average 20 knots or more for 4 hours or greater on Whidbey Island. 16 of those days were "South Easterly" and 5 of those days "Westerly".
The one thing the search criteria doesn't show is whether or not the wind blew during daylight hours. If you cut all of the numbers in half it still gives you an average of one sailable day per week 12 months of the year on Whidbey.
The real interesting thing is when you start adjusting the average windspeed over that four hour block in the search criteria. Out of the 104 days in 2012 more than 80 days averaged 30 knots or more for that 4 hour block. This explains why the locals think 4.7 is a big sail for winter sailing down there.
The mystery of the sideways growing trees is starting to make sense
Cheers,
Chris