Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Yesterday involved a lot of time "not" at the beach. Errands, work and having fun with my favorite dude (Big M), as well as a decent mid-day nap - but I did get a 4 miler in in the late afternoon. The wind was supposed to be 11 mph from the South, but the frontal passage was progressing a bit faster than forecasted (my opinion) and I ended up with a paddling session (I learned my lesson from last week and brought a paddle). I also got the bug to install a rear position foot strap on the Starboard Blend - did some internet surfing to find a good model and ratio-proportioning and cut the decking material from the new stick'em screw plates. I still have to clean the stripped areas off, but once the foot strap is on, it'll make carrying the board to and from the water with a sail rig on it way easier. More to follow on this.

Last night the wind turned and really kicked up. Heavy rains pelted the house and just as quickly as they came they went.

This morning, the howls of 25+ mph winds, the swaying Yellow Pines and the blaring wind chimes announced that the interface between the passing low and the pushing high was here.

So - with gusts past 30 blowing straight offshore, I decided discretion was the call for today. Keeping two hulls in contact with the GOM might have been really challenging, especially with no crew (La, Big M and Noe have all recently been saying things like "I get seasick when the sky is cloudy" and "BAD DADDY!!!!" - if that isn't a hint I don't know what is...)

I did make it down to the beach to check out the conditions. These shots say it all - strong winds blowing the low tide even lower (I've never seen it this low before - I'm pretty sure this was more local wind driven vice gravitational tide), and whitecaps seen from directly upwind (normally they stick out like a sore thumb from the side - the wind was so stiff that they stuck out from a rear view).

In closing, there are two types of skunks - the one that spoils your session because you don't have enough wind (or surf, or fill in the blank), and the one that gives you too much of a good thing. I've been sprayed by both now down here on the "Third" Coast and I stink of "lack of stoke".

Oh well - at least I can see the water (i.e., I'm not in Baghdad) and there's always tomorrow (for kiting, sailing, SUPing and even dreaming of surfing)!