<<I was reading thru some old posts, this one from Gary Cleaman. In early June we departed Ventura for Vancouver, B.C. leaving at 08:30. Weather wasn't bad but by noon was blowing about 35 NW. About 3 miles out from Co Jo Anchorage, 3 miles offshore, we expenrienced a fire >> Here goes with some more comments about the Stinkin NW wind. It is rare that the WX service will not have a pretty good handle on the wind speed and direction along any section of this coast, as long as the prediction period is less than 24 hours. However, if the wind is blowing and the wind is about to lay down, the accurate prediction of this may only come 6-12 hours in advance of the lay down. In other words, if it is blowing 40 knots at 6 am at Bodega Bay and the prediction from the 3 am forecast was for more of the same, when the actual laydown comes, then it may be the 9 am forecast before the prediction will be changed to show a lay down at say, 1 pm. I frequently break out of the these coastal harbors by anticipating such things happening with only a few hours warning by staying very closely connected to the radio broadcasts. The longer the wind has been elevated, the greater the strictly statistical chance is that it will die out. Just when you think it will never lay down, the prediction will change and you can get going again. Frequently when these lay downs occur the quiet that follows is very. What the WX service has going for it in these instances is the number of land based reporting locations which bring them barometric readings over a wide geographic area. In other words, they can "see" the pressure gradient increasing and decreasing near headlands such that they can identify where the wind is bound to increase or decrease. And estimate how many hours these sequences will take to occur. If the pressure gradient increase is coming from offshore where the reporting stations are few and far between, then watch out! You will most likely get not near enough warning, as to the maximum wind speed or the timing of it's onset. It would help if the WX service would indicate in their broadcasts where the gradient increase is coming from, the land side or the ocean side, as the prediction accuracy is directly related to this. As a side note, you want to be wary of SW storm forecasts that indicate higher winds on the headlands as these may reach the surface without warning. Such mistakes have caught a number of sailors in much higher winds than anyone had anticipated. Any prediction of higher NW winds at night or what would be an afternoon laydown, should be taken very seriously and viewed with extreme caution. I would not try to round most any of the major headlands like Pt. Conception, Cape Mendecino in the dark, against high wind, if there is any sign of the wind not laying during the period. Best to wait until just daylight before coming out from behind the headland's protection and making a dash up the coast. Assuming that conditions are remotely workable. Mistakes in the daylight are much easier to correct than those made in the dark. The automated voice wx broadcasts by most of the stations on the coast are such monsters that it hard to use them any more. I don't think anything will improve in this regard without persistant complaints on the part of the user community, which means you. Here is a list of things for you to be aware of. Broadcasts frequently have missing components. Since some components are now only broadcast every 30 to 60 minutes instead of every cycle, it is hard to tell if the component is missing or just hasn't come up yet. You can waste the better part of an hour trying to figure this out. The wasting of precious air time for the automated voice to pronounce words not needed or repeat over and over words not need to be repeated, like temperature, etc. Using full words where an abbreviation would do, has so clogged up the available air time that in any given hour the information you may desperately need to hear may only be transmitted once. Eureka has the best control of this and their system suffers from the same defects. At their stations you can almost set your clock when the buoy reports are almost duplicated near the 15 minutes after the hour, when the previous hours stuff is immediately replaced by the latest hours stuff, just about 15 minutes after the hour. This occurs hour after hour. If this near duplication can be fixed simply, I would make bet that it will be. Eventually. At all the other stations buoy condition reports are sucking hind tit and I would not hold my breath when this will change. You folks whose parents or grandparents were farmers and raised hogs will appreciate nature of that last remark. The buoy condition reports are the lifeblood of good coastal transit timing and the failure to keep these current and broadcast regular is a real tragedy. You can make plans based upon the wx predictions but the final arbiter of the decision making process as to whether to go/no go should be based on the buoy condition reports. The closest buoys being the most important. Regards, Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Wilsonville, Near Portland Oregon