Long Beach Fish Spotting

We met up with a classmate and family friend at one of our old haunts in Long Beach - the "Pink House" beach. Lots of birds hanging out - especially cool was the colony of Black Skimmers. I noticed some movement just offshore (literally 5 feet) and saw some stingrays. Oh how I wish I had a good 5wt setup.... These guys were slightly smaller than the ones I used to see while paddling the SUP when we lived down here. Lots of other cool things spotted while beachcombing. As we are making our next move across country, getting to see old friends and our favorite spots is a great way to open our new adventures!

Saturday Afternoon SUPing

Another day relaxing on the beach...

Life is going to change pretty quickly for the Velasco family...

In a good way - stay tuned

SUP Saturday

Loaded (and I am using the term literally) the Pathfinder and hit the beach today!

SUP and Sail were the targets.

I got on the board (11'2" Blend) the sail rigged (older 5.8 Boxer) and it was like no time has passed since the last perfectly tuned days of windsurfing back in Kailua - back in the days before kites were brought on the market. It was fun to board sail again!

Another great thing about SUP sailing is the fact that no one cares if you're sporting the latest equipment from 2004. Throw the gear on and have fun!

We spent 4 hours out today and I got La windsurfing on the SUP - she was good (but impatient; on a side note, I've been getting the "don't under estimate me" comment for a while now; the awesome thing is she does listen and when she isn't absorbing anymore, it's as plain as day = makes me laugh hard inside when she starts drifting as I explain the actions she needs to take). I figure with practice, she'll be self sufficient on the longboard in a month or so. The shallow (albeit brown, really brown) water is excellent for teaching windsurfing or kiting. Now I just have to get the family taught up before we have to move again.

Nice day!

Fun Saturday

Got a lot done today -

I paddled from Pass Christian to Gulfport (6.1 nm) - from the wind forecast, this was supposed to be a downwinder. La and the kids dropped me off and as I saw them driving away, I felt the wind pickup from the SE (not the SW as forecasted).

Needless to say, the paddle I was hoping to do in 1 hour took 1.75 -

Anyways - made land fall and played with the kids while La took the board out.

Caught some more baby fish and another blue crab (not quite soft shell, but not fully hardened up yet). I'm getting good at catching those guys.

We went home and took a massive nap! Awesome!

The Slip to Ship regatta took place today. I'm kind of glad I sat this one out - lighter winds for most of the day would have meant slow racing - not my cup of tea. Plus the longer catamarans with more sail area would have spanked me - one of the benefits I have learned about the Weta (and trimarans in general) is that they will handle stronger winds better than cats, but they are slower in lighter winds.

I also finished fine sanding La's SUP. I'll start painting the blanks tomorrow.

Nice day!

Sunny and HOT

Went family paddling yesterday morning before the heat came on too bad.

After the group paddling session, the kids and I went fish hunting with nets - we caught all kinds of things - baby mullet (I believe thats what they were), some kind of frumpy fish (baby goosefish?), a small blue crab that was regrowing a lost pincher, and some awesome tans!

The oil hasn't gotten into the sound yet and from the last reports I've heard, it is still about 75 miles south of Gulfport. So our aquatic outings will still happen - more to follow...

Oh, and if you find yourself down here doing what we do, don't forget to wear a hat that has a top, unlike the visor I was wearing. Sunburns on the top of your head are highly likely. Ouch, and very awkward to deal with.

Another Regatta Saturday...

Came in third.

We got 9.7 kts out of the wind today (11.5 kts from the NDBC site).

What's up with that????!!!!!!*(*^&*%$&^

Although number 2 cheated by throwing up a spinnaker (this series had a 'no head sail' rule).

Another good excuse would be 'it was really hot' or 'the wind was light'.

How about 'the wind clocked around and gave the lifts to everyone in front of us, but not to us'?

Seriously - I though we (Roger, Camille, me) sailed a good race - we didn't blow any tacks, or screw up (too many) lay lines - we just got beat.

Pictures taken with the GoPro (I love this camera!!!).

Oh and did I say 'it's hot down here!'?

On the local news

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12451526

Here's the link

Look for the F28 on the way out (motoring, not sailing).

It's also looking like the oil is not immediately threatening - wonder how long we'll be this lucky???

Mother's Day SUPing Fun

We had a BLAST today!!!

Here are some pictures of the SUPing we did today.

The kids are getting more and more relaxed on the water.

Luckily the oil hasn't made it's way into the bay (yet). The news has been saying the first globs have made landfall in Louisiana and Dauphin Island in Alabama. But from the time on the water today, you would have never guessed there was 3.5 million gallons of crude oil drifting around out there.

We did manage to catch some baby fish - tiny little guys (I think mullet).

Anyways - in my opinion, you couldn't have paid for a better day -

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY LA!!!!

Amphibious Saturday

Fun Saturday!!!

UCT 1 is down here in Gulfport supporting Seabee Day and conducting other business. I can't turn down any opportunity to dive (and didn't even though the water was more than a little bit green). HOOYAH Seabee Divers!

Then, without much turnaround, it was off to Long Beach Harbor for yet another race on Roger Evans' F28. Four boats raced today and we came in second only by a few boat lengths (and a few minutes based on corrections).

For the record - MONOHULLS SUCK! Why sail slow when you can BLAST! Check out the spray flying off the starboard ama!!!

We started about 35 minutes behind the other boats (staggered start based on correction factor) and after having to go downwind on the first leg (not a trimarans favorite point of sail), we ate up the course on the second (nearly a beam reach) and third (close reach) legs. Got up to 14 kts (my GPS ran out of battery power, but that was the highest speed I got) on a NE-N-NW breeze.

Saw more than a few dolphins - and NO OIL. I'm not going to talk about it for fear of jinxing the Coast....

Tomorrow is Mother's Day!!! If the weather cooperates, SUPing! Stay tuned!

Tri Sailing

Today - our amphibious adventure consisted of sailing our trimaran.

Took the tri out on two independent runs:

The first was with the family - rigged up just the main. We still got 9.1 kts in 14 kts of breeze. Marlon said he didn't get seasick this time - a good plus, while Noe started crying her eyes out saying she was cold - negative. One for two isn't too bad. They are still too young to keelhaul to improve their morale, so we tried the old fashioned way to make them feel better - dippin dots ice cream.

I called Roger up and then I rigged up all three sails. I wanted to sail with someone with more knowledge than I had to get better with the boat, especially off the wind (broad reaching). We made a long reach to the R2 marker off Cat Island, then headed back pinching for a bit so we could make a reach with the screecher back to the harbor. I forgot to tie off the roller furler line so we had some issues with the screecher, but we still had it up and running. Got 13 kts out of HOOYAH in 14-15 kts of breeze. Roger even coaxed me into sailing into the harbor to land the boat (I would have never done that on my own - clear, uncongested beach has been my mainstay) - smooth operation. There seemed like there were a few holes in the wind flow, but what a great day of sailing!!!

Nothing like a bunch of sore muscles and sun warmed skin to make you feel alive!

Prelude to Summer???

Took the Naish 14' out today for a 45 minute run.

While I was loading the board just outside of the garage, there were gnats biting my ears.

When I was taking the board off the top of the truck at the beach, there were gnats biting my ears.

As I was paddling well over a mile offshore, there were #$%##@ing gnats biting my ears.

In the car driving back home, there were !@%$%##@ gnats biting my *^(*(*&^%$ ears.



If this is anything like what Summer is going to be like, I'm buying some industrial strength DEET, and I'm going to wear it like it's going out of style...



I hate gnats!

Racing Day 1

Yesterday was a bust - lots of wind but Marlon wasn't feeling well - twist my arm... I so rarely get to take a nap. No Dauphin Island kiting and shell hunting. However, after a nice long snooze session, we still took a drive down the beach to take in the beautiful weather.

Today, wind was nuking!!!

Met up with Roger (owner/skipper of the F28 I'm crewing on) just before 1200. We were out sailing by 1250 and racing by 1345. We were doing nicely until around 1445 - between us and Gulfport (off the port bow) there was what looked like an overturned sailboat. It was a capsized boat that the owner, crew and several racers (all the boats dropped their sails to lend a hand) could not right. By the end of it all, the mast had floated off and the hull was just poking out of the water (all 13' of it - not that deep between mainland and the barrier islands). Hopefully the owners can get the boat salvaged (which they should).

That ended the race and we (Roger, Camille, Missy and I) headed back in. My GPS read 16.6 kts max speed - Roger's hull mounted speedometer read 14.7 kts max. Not bad. I think we would have easily taken first if circumstances didn't sink a boat today.

Next race next Saturday!

GoPro on the Weta

NW winds today 10-20 mph.

Straight offshore conditions here. The only thing to do was take the trimaran out (oh twist my arm...).

I got rigged up and out by 1600. The GoPro was bolted to a suction cup, just aft of the mast. Got 1054 pictures on the 2Mb card. The guys that make this camera really got this right. Next time I go out, I'll use a hose clamp to put a mount on the bowsprite (and a second mount on the mast base for the GPS).

Fun run - almost capsized the thing when a heavy gust ended up being heavier that I thought it was going to be. Didn't get that on the camera - the GoPro will take almost an hour of continuous pictures - I was out for 2.

Only had the main up (not the jib). Without La, the jib would have been too much. Did deploy the kite (screacher) - doubled my broad reach speed.

Paddling in the cold

La's caught the paddling bug (along with the pullup and running bugs - New Year's Resolutions...) hard and we've been out twice already this New Year despite the cold. The North winds really dampen down the waves (at least on this side of the fetch). Makes for ultra flat water.

The air temps have been down below the 50 degree mark though - cold if you're not paddling, or running around after two kiddoroos, or digging holes in the sand - you get the idea.