SE Friday - Ebey

[Michael]

Crescent Harbour

Wish we had known about this today. Dude it was cranking in Oak Harbour!

[Chris Klohn]

Hi Michael ,

Sorry !!! Way too much info to try and pass over in a few quick posts while working. I'm trying to remember all the details from ten years of sailing there quickly. I guess Ebey would have been like sailing on the beach in Tsawwassen in an ESE when you didn't know Centennial existed

There's over a dozen beaches from Oak Harbour to Double Bluff that offer good conditions. Ebey and JWSP are the two main spots for huge swell when the direction is right. I'm guessing you and Dave didn't see any locals kiting or windsurfing at Ebey today even though it was blowing 25-40mph at Ault Field and Oak Harbour all day.

If it's light in Oak Harbour and too offshore at Ebey, checkout the service road in Admiralty Bay that turns into Hwy West 20. Crockett Lake is on the North side and the bay on the South. There are a few pullouts right on the beach you can rig up and launch from. This is where to go when the wind is building and still has East in it. Once it swings to SSE, Ebey turns on.

If it's cranking in Oak Harbour like today, go to the SE point access road on Kalamut Island. If that's closed there's another launch directly E across the bay from the point on Kalamut that works awesome. Nice wrapping waves on either side of the point on ESE to SE winds. You want a tide higher than 6 feet for this bay to setup sweet.

The little bit of water you see driving through Oak Harbour before climbing up the hill is sheltered from Kalamut Island. The good rule of thumb is if there's solid white caps there with some wind it'll be full on in the bay just to the East. There's a huge fetch on SE winds that really builds the swell up.

The best thing to do is pack the mountain bikes, SUP and hiking shoes and go for a weekend with your family. You'll get dialed in pretty quickly on all the spots for next winter season after a weekend of exploring.

It's still pretty sweet that you got 5.2 conditions on a less than ideal beach, in the lee of a 300' high bluff, with the winds blowing side-off when Centennial averaged 12 knots all day Next time, you'll be on the right beach for the wind direction, enjoying the swell with your 4.0 and wave board

Cheers,

Chris

[C36]

Video of M and I road testing the Ebey Landing access road.

pre-launch OSR
mid-session OSR
post-session OSR

Click here to view the slideshow of Admiralty Bay and Ebey Landing.

ps Caught a quick post-work session at CNL with Brendan on Sat (6.9/110/32/SUP) - nice to get in the sun on such a nice wind/wave angle.

[Chris Klohn]

Hey Dave,

Still feel crappy for forgetting to tell you about Crescent Harbour. I just assumed it would be SSE-S for you guys and haven't sailed anywhere but Ebey this season. Ebey does get sweet when the direction is good.

You'll love Crescent for it's Centennial like conditions with the added option of two point breaks. If there's swell built up on that chunk of water before you climb the hill into Oak Harbour you need to go straight to Crescent.

The last shot of Ebey with the sun reminds me of most of the big SSE days down there. Always blue sky poking through somewhere even though your on a 3.something. Looks like another active pattern setting up for the end of the week

Cheers,

Chris

[C36]

Hey Dave,

Still feel crappy for forgetting to tell you about Crescent Harbour. I just assumed it would be SSE-S for you guys and haven't sailed anywhere but Ebey this season. Ebey does get sweet when the direction is good.

Don't feel bad Chris - our choice to go down and our choice to sail Ebey. We talked over the options before we launched - Double Bluff (looked flat on webcam); go back to Admiralty Bay (didn't look enticing when we were there earlier); return back up to Oak Bay and 'hunt around' for something with better wind exposure (and sail smaller gear in flatter conditions); or stay at Ebey and hope the wind rotated to us (and it would offer better water conditions). In the end we decided to stay at Ebey and the wind did rotated to sideshore and then to side-on.

Even when Ebey was pumping sideshore (could have been out on 4.5 in the gusts) it really didn't roll all that much, but to my understanding there really wasn't much wind south of us on Friday.

You'll love Crescent for it's Centennial like conditions with the added option of two point breaks. If there's swell built up on that chunk of water before you climb the hill into Oak Harbour you need to go straight to Crescent.

That chunk of water was what I spoke to in the first pre-launch OSR and I'm, pretty sure its called Penn Cove if we are talking about the same place. As for Crescent Harbour, we could see the south side of Kalamut Island from the second storey of the Mexican restaurant where we ate dinner - it had good wind exposure at the tip, but the water condition that we could see (from a distance) looked more like chop/bump and jump then anything wave-like.

[Chris Klohn]

Hi Dave,

You are correct with the wind down South. Double Bluff, Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet were all pretty light that day. You need a solid 20-25 down there out of the SSE-SSW to get Ebey rolling.

We used to make the drive in the winter season way back when only when gale warnings were issued. This happened a few dozen times each winter season. It was sort of our insurance policy to make up for 4 hours in a car.

The trouble is, there's been so many great days this season on 15-25 and 20-30 small craft advisories it's tough not to get pumped up. The swell you saw at Penn Cove and the wind in Oak Harbour is normal with a 25-35 forecast.

The South side of Kalamut is pretty deep and the wind lifts in front of the face for a ways out. The water was always choppy and the winds light right in front of the bluffs.

The waves form off the southeast side of Kalamut. You can't see the spot until you drive out to the point. The bottom of the bay is sandy but there's a distinct gravel bar made up of baseball sized stones that extends 100 meters out into the bay off that southeast corner.

The deep water swell cleans up in between the point where the bay gets shallow. Similar to the second shelf at Centennial. I've sailed there in 4.2-5.2 conditions several times and the swell was waist to shoulder high and smooth.

All of the big nuking sub 4.0 SE days for me have been at either a Ebey or Useless Bay. Both of those places get very, very big when the direction is good and the wind 30 knots or more. Useless Bay will deliver frontside rides on the far side of the bay opposite the webcam.

You guys are armed with some great spots and good experience already down there. Were you wondering if Centennial was windy the whole time you were at Ebey? I think Mike said he sailed 15 minutes powered 5.9 and 15 minutes underpowered 5.9 while you guys were on 5.2's and the guys at Crescent 3.7-4.2's.

Your big break through day down there is coming. You and Michael have sure put in the time Great to have options.......

Cheers,

Chris

[C36]

... Were you wondering if Centennial was windy the whole time you were at Ebey? I think Mike said he sailed 15 minutes powered 5.9 and 15 minutes underpowered 5.9 while you guys were on 5.2's and the guys at Crescent 3.7-4.2's...

I had a sense CNL was not going to be great, but I was thinking about CB the whole time we were there and the posts on BWD are hard to read

[Chris Klohn]

I saw those CB posts on BWD too Dave Sounded like the guys had a pretty good day there. I was checking the webcam off and on throughout the day. Looked like fun knee to waist high front side conditions in 5.0 wind.