Good Morning Whidbey!
Here's my two cents on what's going on down south..........
The wind shifted westerly last night at 11pm through the western part of Juan de Fuca strait and 1am through the eastern part. I was hoping for a 3-4am switch to guarantee the best conditions early in the morning. The pressure rise as the leading edge of the front passed was impressive with 50 knot gusts at Race Rocks.
There's a Gale Warning up until 1pm for Whidbey with Westerly 25-35 knots. The winds are supposed to ease to Westerly 20-30 knots after 1 pm. The TAF is the only forecast not on board with the stronger and longer winds. It shows the winds easing off to West 15 from 3am until 9am and West 12 by 11am. The current winds are West 24G32 at Whidbey. The actuals are way over performing the forecast
BWD, G-Spot, NOAA, NWSS and the MM5 all show good wind until early afternoon. The pressure gradients have actually been increasing slightly each hour since the shift to westerly.............this is excellent! The buoy at the extreme western most point of Juan de Fuca Strait recorded its peak wind of Westerly 36G48 knots 15 minutes ago at 5:00am.............this is excellent! It's approximately 150 kilometres upwind from JWSP.
As I mentioned yesterday, the earlier the better to get on the road. I would be rigged and suited by 7am waiting for light if I could get away without the family and wasn't working overseas.
9am should still have you in good shape to catch some wind. The swell just upwind from Smith Island is almost 3 meters right now. If the wind continues to pump in the mid to high 30's JWSP should be size large at daybreak
My educated guess for today is:
0700-0800 West 25G35 7-9' Waves / Larger Swell
0800-0900 West 15G24 5-7' Waves / Larger Swell
0900-1100 West 14G22 3-4' Waves / Larger Swell
1100-1300 West 13G20 2-3' Waves / Larger Swell
1300-1500 West 12G19 2-3' Waves / Larger Swell
If something unexpected pops up with the pressures, direction or wind strength I'll let you know. Save a little energy for tomorrow, Double Bluff is going to be insane late morning through until dark! Perfect tides too all day down there with the sandbar!
Cheers,
Chris