[PUP] Weather and T-Pec (ex: Scott's excellent T-Pec adventure)

[Peter Pisciotta]

This is a great open discussion - with good points on
both sides. It's a slow month, and frankly I think
weather gets short shift on boating lists, so I'll
bite with one more post. 

I can't say I disagree with Scott: with a known 7-day
weather window from multiple credible sources, I might
go straight across too. But I just don't have the
patience to wait around for an uber-window like that,
even as a cruiser vs a delivery captain: when it's
time to leave, I get antsy waiting for wx. Especially
when there's a safe, comfortable, and low-risk beach
route available at least 2-days out of 7 (a guess). I
wish there was an equally simple alternative to
getting around the California Points/Capes -- with
just a 6-hour penalty. Why wouldn't I do that???

Crossings like T-Pec are all about lowering risks, and
I guess waiting for an enormous weather window is one
way. I'm glad more people are able to lower their
risk. But for me (impatient), I'd get spanked sooner
or later (okay, it's happened a few times - okay,
several times, well...you get the point). Nothing life
threatening - just super annoying. It sucks to slow to
3-knots and head 60-degrees off course and have a
river entrance unpassable due to darkness or current
(Scott - great tip for a back-up if Los Barrillos is
impassable). I hate soda can projectiles launched out
of refrigerators damaging 15-coats of varnish. What's
worse is spending the next 5-years looking at the
moose-print divot memorial in the floor (err, I don't
have any fine varnish----but if I did...). 

And yea, wx has gotten more accurate but it's still
far from perfect. Just look at a few days of Wx
charts: systems appear and disappear all the time for
no reason other than a shift change at the NWS offices
- one forecaster saw a developing system, the next one
didn't, so POOF, it's gone! And these are the big
kahuna's of forecasting: trained by the military with
umpteen years of doing nothing but forecasting
weather.

Good on you Scott! Have a beer for everyone on the
list. And 2 for me.

Peter
Willard 36
San Francisco (boat)



=======================
Peter Pisciotta
415-902-8439