This has been the windiest year that I can remember since I used to live in Prince Rupert in the '70s.
My wife and I have been boating in this area since 1987 with the purchase of our first boat together, a 17' Arima which we still have. We've been cruising with the cabin cruiser since 1998. And I-- and then we-- have been flying floatplanes in this region since 1979.
While there have been plenty of windstorms during all those years, it seems to me that the last four or five years have been windier overall than any of the previous years, particularly in the winter.
It's not just us that's been noticing this, either. A number of members of our boating club have expressed the same observation, usually linking them to complaints about how they used to take cruises all through the winter, spend Christmas or New Years in the islands (as have we) and so on.
But the last few years most of these plans have had to be cancelled due to wind.
We and the yard we use have been dealing with a particularly challenging problem with our cabin cruiser that has required it to be hauled out four times so far over the past couple of months. Every time it goes back in the water we and the yard need to take it out into the bay for a test run. It's been challenging finding the days for this between the un-ending parade of storms that have been marching through. Winds in our harbor have frequently been in the 35-45 mph range with gusts higher than that.
I suspect it's all the fault of that pesky climate that's insisted on changing since day one of this planet despite the whining of us humans who, to the climate and the forces that control it, are probably as interesting and significant as pond scum is to us.
If the trend keeps going, perhaps it will be time to revisit the notion of getting a sailboat since it appears there's going to be plenty of power for it.
I'm thinking something like the boat pictured below would be perfect. It's the first sailboat my wife was on under sail and we both enjoyed the hell out of it. I think we could make it work in these waters very nicely. It's even got twin engines for those increasingly rare days when the wind's not blowing, so I don't have to violate my self-imposed rule of never, ever owning a single engine boat. We'll have to get a larger slip, though.....
