So it looks like my old friends up in the Seattle area are about to get clobbered again by a big fat cold storm. I haven't heard any Seattle forecasts, but I just ran the radar loop at NOAA for the whole west coast and it's not pretty:
You can't see it in this still (and I'm not into it enough to create an animated GIF for you) but that mass out there is spinning clockwise and is going to bring a lot of mess up there. It's affecting me way down here because that system is pushing other weather down here, creating the northerlies and northwesterlies that will make the trip up Baja difficult - especially solo. But I'm still planning on heading out at some point on the 27th - probably about 8pm or so, is how it looks now. My goal the first day is Bahia Santa Maria - there's really nowhere else to stop. That should take me exactly 24 hours. After that I'll evaluate the weather again and decide if I'll hug the coastline or if I may do better farther offshore on a longer run. The longer range forecast is calling for northeasterlies after this system goes through, so I may be fine staying 5-10 miles offshore and getting a good beam reach up the coast. That's almost ideal. The only thing better, in fact, would be something more from the south pushing me north / northwest. But I won't be greedy.
