Take a look at the analysis charts available from the NOAA, so you can compare them to the satellite images. Here is a webpage with a bunch of surface and upper-level charts:
Radiofax Charts - Pt. Reyes, CA
Here is the 500-millibar (upper-air) chart from that site:
You can see the jetstream (around the thick contour line), and it is well to the north of the cloud structures on the satellite image.
Here is another good site for analysis and forecasts:
Ocean Prediction Center
From this page, look at the Pacific surface analysis:
See the three high-pressure regions where the cloudless region is in the sat photo? This is the Pacific High. It shifts daily and seasonally.
Here is the tropical surface analysis (from the first link):
The "scalloped" figures are thunderstorm activity, and correlate nicely with the dark red areas on your sat image. If I were sailing in that location I would prepare for squalls -- but you wouldn't need a satellite image to tell you that!