Sunday, June 8, 2008

FOGLAND, windsurfed, landboarded, mostly light winds from S to W, Sunny, 94 F. air temp to start, 75 F. end.

I windsurfed. I landboarded. I windsurfed. The 6.2 was too small for the Carve 123, and too big for the landboard. What are the odds of that?

Strange weather- The wind was all over the place, shifty, up and down, sneaky. on 2 runs I noticed that the wind was SW on one side and S on the other, with a line in the middle where it was dead with much colder air, very strange. It was so hot that I sailed for a while with no wetsuit. Chris P. was in his sailboat all weekend, offshore from Boston. He said it was cool & foggy there, jacket weather.

Freestyle launch- I found a good place for the non-planing freestyle stuff in SW or W. It's the first parking on the left when you drive in, sailing near the boat ramp. It's nice and sandy and it drops off somewhat gradually. The whole area from there to the lighthouse seemed similar, except close to the lighthouse was rocky.

Pinching the lighthouse- The highlight of the session was cruising past the lighthouse in mostly W winds just before sunset. I wanted to see what was on the other side. What a beautiful spot! The lighthouse is perched on a rocky cliff and outcropping. Up close, the shore looks almost like it is made of coral from a Caribbean scene. I had to tack upwind to get out there. On the way back I was very tight to the point, barely pinching upwind of it. If I had dropped the sail it would have landed on the rocks at the base of the cliff. Of course, any rational sailor would expect the wind to be super light in that close to a rock wall, and it was. There was also some backwash from the small chop hitting the wall. It occurred to me that it would be hard to get out of there if I fell, because I would have to swim it straight upwind to get off the rocks. I guess I unwittingly found a way to give myself a challenge in the light winds. But I was mostly just being a tourist and enjoying the dramatic view. It would be fun to sail there in a good strong W or NW wind.

Fogland Lighthouse

I just did a Google search on the Fogland lighthouse and discovered that it isn't a lighthouse. It's a private residence, 263 High Hill Rd, made to look like a lighthouse, very convincing. It sold for 4.4 million in 2006.

2 comments:

PeconicPuffin said...

Keep an eye out for my friend Caldwell (he's of the white van set). Will do nonplaning freestyle with you if you need company! Very nice guy, too.

scooper said...

O.K. If I see him, I'll tell him the Puffin sent me. I would love to have some company on these light wind days. Typically, when the wind leaves so does everybody else, but me.