Sunday, June 29, 2008

HARDING'S BEACH, windsurfed, W, SW, SSW, light building to 15-22, Gerry

Recurring Dream- I used to have a recurring windsurfing dream; I'm driving to the beach, I can see the water, I can see chop and windsurfers planing, it looks great! But the road, like Rubberman's long arm, stretches on endlessly. I drive, and drive, and I never get there. There were variations to this theme but the common thread was that I never got to windsurf in my windsurfing dreams. I haven't had those dreams in recent years, which is ironic, because I feel like they are coming to life with alarming frequency.

Skunk # 10. Since March. But who's counting?

Here's How- It was howling when I arrived. All the kiters had stopped to get smaller kites, but the wind dropped off while I was rigging. Gerry and I tailgated it for about 1 hour, nursing our dissapointment with bottled water. I took some long cruising runs to explore the area some more, then practiced tacking, jibing and crashing in the small shorebreak to improve my light wind wave balance. It helped me work out my frustration regarding the unreliable wind, and unreliable wind forecasts. The wind improved near the end, I was planing about 50 %, so I sailed until 8:45 pm and got everything derigged just before the light completely faded.

Gerry was overpowered on his 7.0 when I arrived


Ridgevale Beach- The wind was SSW near the end, port tack out. I found an interesting spot, a little down wind (in SSW), where a creek meets the ocean. There were some small sandbars at the mouth of the creek that were about waist deep near high tide. Chop was breaking on them, even in the light winds. I'll bet with an outgoing tide, near high tide, that there is some fun jumping to be had around those sandbars. The water flowing into the creek, on the incoming tide, was surprisingly strong. One could park at Ridgevale Beach, which is right next to the creek outlet, but it looks like a long walk from the parking lot. Ridgevale is between Harding's and Cockle Cove, easy to sail to.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear the wind is more reliable on the West Coast.

scooper said...

I think you're right. I've been reading The Human Cataplut's blog. He moved from the east coast to california a few weeks ago and he has been sailing a lot on 5.0's.

Anonymous said...

don't look at the wind data now...! arghhhh!

scooper said...

I know. I checked a few minutes ago. Somebody's looking down on us and having a good laugh.

PeconicPuffin said...

We hate the skunk.

This spring-summer (since mid May) has been much poorer for wind than last year. I keep records. We're being punished!

Anonymous said...

But it's about to turn around....!

scooper said...

PP- I'll buy into your theory about punishment. The wind dieing as I rig is becoming way too frequent to just be random. So which wind God should I pray to?

Anonymous said...

Are you free tomorrow?

scooper said...

Not sure. I'm supposed to be on childcare duty but I may be free late in the day for a sunset session. How about you? Horseneck could be nice.

Anonymous said...

Horseneck would have been purr-fect. But I believe it's Martial Law over there throughout the summer. Ended up at Waquoit for a modest 8-hour kite sesh, while my son shredded on the windsurfer, it was an end all be all kind of day.