What are you sailing today?
Every number on this page is calibrated to your boat. A Sabot and a keelboat do not agree about what fifteen knots means.
The numbers behind the water
Wind through the day
Each bar is the steady wind for that hour; the line above it is the gust. Colour is your zone. Tap any bar.
Today's tide
The curve is the water level through the day. Dots mark high and low; the dashed line is right now.
The 3–2–1 check
Three questions at home, two checks at the dock, one rule on the water. The gate opens when all six are in.
Works with no signal — it’s saved in the page. Stay with the boat: it floats, it’s the biggest thing out there, and it’s what a rescue boat will spot first.
The rule of the log. One: write it down the day you sail. Two: the bad sails teach more than the good ones. Three: wind that scared you last month is wind you handle now.
Mission control
Every sail you log keeps today’s real numbers with it. Over a season it shows you something a forecast can’t: how much more wind you can handle than you used to.
Nothing logged yet, so this is what one looks like once it is: sixteen sails from a spring on a Sabot to a big-breeze afternoon on the keelboat. Every chart below is live — hover it, drag it, open it up. It clears the moment you log a real sail.
Nothing logged yet. Sail today, then come back and write it down.
Tell mission control what happened
How did it go out there?
Pick one — the honest one is worth more points than the good one.
Anything worth remembering?
Ready. Today gets saved with today’s water.
What's coming up
Races and regattas on the bay. Anything inside a week gets flagged — and a race day is still a day the wind gets a vote.
Dates from the Association of Santa Monica Bay Yacht Clubs calendar. Always confirm with the club before turning up — asmbyc.org/events · smwyc.org/calendar
Know your boat, know your bay
AWhat the numbers mean for a CFJ or 420
| Zone | Steady wind | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Go | 5–14 kt | Prime learning breeze. Hike, work on boat speed, have fun. |
| Light | 0–4 kt | Safe but slow. Great for roll tacks and boat handling. Bring patience. |
| Caution | 15–18 kt | Coach boat on the water and a buddy boat near you. Depower: flatten the sail, hike hard, ease early in puffs. |
| Wait | 19+ kt, gusts 24+ | Not your day — and that's a smart call, not a chicken call. Practise rigging or knots ashore. |
Gusts. Gusts 8+ knots above the steady wind make a puffy day. Puffs knock you over faster than steady wind does — ease the mainsheet the moment one hits.
Waves. Under 3 ft is comfortable. 3–5 ft is a heads-up outside the breakwater: bear away down the faces, don't slam into them. 6 ft and over means stay inside or stay ashore.
Water temperature. Under 65°F wear your wetsuit. Always dress to swim, not to sail — you're one capsize from being in it.
Fog. If you can't see the breakwater from the dock, wait. Fog in this bay can swallow the shoreline in minutes.
Tide. Marina tides are gentle, but a big swing means extra current at the harbour entrance, and a very low tide means a longer, slipperier ramp.
BHow Santa Monica Bay behaves
Mornings are usually glassy. The westerly sea breeze fills in late morning, peaks around 12–15 knots mid-afternoon, then fades toward sunset — which is why the wind you launch in is rarely the wind you come home in.
Late spring brings morning fog, the famous June Gloom, and it can sit on the water long after the beach has cleared.
Rare offshore Santa Ana days feel deceptively calm at the dock and then get gusty fast once you're out. Ask a coach before sailing on one.
CTeach a friend — Auguste's guide script
When you show a newer sailor how to use this, don't lecture. Ask three questions and let them find the answers.
- "What colour is today, and why?"They read the big word and the line under it — the single most important fact, found by them.
- "Drag to the windiest hour we'll be out. Bigger or smaller than now?"They watch the ocean itself change. That's the lesson: conditions move while you're on the water.
- "When do we have to be back, and who did you tell?"Sunset minus an hour, plus a float plan. Safety becomes a habit, not a rule.
Then walk to the dock and ask the bonus question: "Do the flags agree with the app?" Teaching someone to trust their eyes over a screen is the best lesson on this whole page.
One more thing worth saying out loud: choosing not to go out on a red day is a skipper's decision. The best sailors at every club are the ones who know when to stay on the beach.
DIf this page can't reach live data
There are four layers, so you always get an answer.
One. Live wind, waves and tide from Open-Meteo and NOAA, fetched fresh when the page opens.
Two. If that's down, the National Weather Service is tried automatically.
Three. If there's no internet at all, the official NWS marine forecast for Santa Monica Bay is saved inside this page and refreshed every morning. You'll see an amber tag when that's what you're reading, and a red one if the saved copy has gone stale.
Four. The links below go straight to the official sources — and the dock has flags, water, and coaches. No screen ever replaces those.