NOAA SF Buoy Back Online (Station 46026)

I was getting worried.

great, just in time for spring. now i can confirm those 20 knot nw winds. that was pretty swift though. hasn't that outer west coast bouy been down for a year +?!

Awake at 3:00 am. Work pager woke me. Can't fall back asleep. Figured I'd keep the buoy company. I might as well translate it's mystic visions and cosmic vibrations for those who don't know what it all means. If you're relying on this site, or surfline, spitcast, wetsand, stormsurf, wetsand, wavewatch, etc, it's like eating processed food. Might fill you up, but it's really not good for you.

Currently it's 8.5' @ 13.8 seconds from the WNW. Winds are from the NW @ 6 gusting to about 10. That's at the buoy. Winds are calm locally down through HMB.

The longer the period, the more organized the swell. 14 seconds is semi-clean, but kinda stacked. The wind won't aggravate it too much. It'll add some funk, but if the AM winds blow offshore, it'll totally clean it up. That would be typical, except it's Spring, so it'll likely blow NW in the AM and make it funkier. That's what makes Spring annoying.

9 foot swell will break in (roughly) 5' of water and make 1.5 OH waves.

So my morning guess:

1.5 to occasional DOH waves with an onshore breeze out of the NW, bit of funk and chop: fair but better than it's been in days. LM same but smaller by 1/3 - 1/2 depending on where you paddle out. Rockaway fun when the tide drops. SW facing spots are the true money locations, but the sharks are still around so skip Año if you like both of your legs.

Welcome home, 46026. Sorry about shacking up with 46012, but you ran out on me. What's a man to do?

Interesting coincidence, I really don't watch TV but this weekend I happened to catch the last 5 minutes of a show called something like 'Dirtiest Jobs' and apparently they were pulling up and cleaning off buoys outside the Golden Gate. I only remembered a green one but it looked the same otherwise. Wondering if 46026 was briefly a TV star too? I guess even buoys can get their 15 minutes of fame.

i'm so happy it's back, i've missed it. and it's a star in my book :)