Sailing Sunday

Sunday the wind was supposed to hit 25 (in the gusts) - but the forecast Sunday morning had the winds lower than 20.

Roger, myself, Bill (Whitmire) and Stan-O (Wiles) went out around 1145 and the wind was a solid 15 mph. The engine choked up pulling out of the dock - we had just gone over a drill to throw out the anchor if something like that happened - self fulfilling prophecy???

We hit 14.5 mph on the way out to Cat Island (upwind) and 15.9 on the way back (broadreach).

The beaches were relatively clean (no visible oil) and the weather was as nice as it could be.

Not so good backing down from Cat - prop dug and popped the transom - fiberglass repair time.

It was great crewing for Roger on the F28 these past couple of years. I learned a lot that I hope to be able to apply in the future on my own F-boat (and on my Weta).

The Wind that was not to be

Between work, La running half marathons and just the general lack of wind, we haven't been out to the beach much. Sure the weather has been wonderful (60s to even low 70s), but without surf or wind, the idea of going to the beach just hasn't sunk in.

Also, with limited time left in my hands before we have to pick up and move again, I have been trying to knock out all the board projects I have in the garage (but that is for another post).

Well that nonsense of not going to the beach ended Sunday. We got up and went to the beach. Not really enough wind to make it thrilling - or even worth setting up the sail for - I ended up bulldozing in the tent. And actually, the extra sleep was well appreciated.

And it really ended on Monday - President's Day - the day that we take to remember the 42 other birthdays of those who have led this country - but more importantly, the weekend La and I got married 10 years ago (eloped - Vegas - but that's yet another story).

Back to the topic at hand - beach, no more nonsense, blah blah blah...

So - 2.5 hours before we have to pick up the kids, I pondered over a dubious wind forecast and declare to La "Let's go sailing - I don't see the wind picking up to forecasted strength and I'm pretty sure I'll get skunked if I try to bring the kites". From the pictures it's obvious we went.

Well - not only did the wind not pick up to the forecasted 15 mph, we were lucky in some instances to be even moving (lots of holes in the wind field). We did get into some breezes and topped out at 9.6 mph - averaged out to 4.0 mph.

We had the screecher out on the outbound leg, tacked with all three sails up and got it furled away nicely on the way back in.

Record breakdown speed and away we went. Nice afternoon sailing with La!

Mini Trimarans

Took the small boats out today -

I jumped on the 11'2" and paddled the boats out to a suitable drop off point so the kids could watch them sail in.

They made it and they were pretty stable. Still not enough forward buoyancy.

And between the proas and the trimarans, the proas actually sailed better... I think it is the sail positioning, but BLAH - no more tweaking, more sailing!

53 F temps and very light winds we're enough to get the kids in the water. Nice day!

On another note, I did get the deckpad on the kiteboard - it's actually looking awesome now! The only thing totally stopping me from getting it wet is the lack of wind. And the lack of a logo. I've got one tee'd up, just need to breakout the Posca pens and the rice paper. Stay tuned for that.

Mods worked perfectly

Lots of resting and cleaning going on at the Velasco Casa today. After most of the action was pau, I took the boat out for a late afternoon run.

Pulled up to the general parking lot at Long Beach Harbor and dragged the boat out over the longest stretch of sand to test out the new wheels. The drag was better - not "floating on pillows on air" better, but definitely better than the old skinny wheel drag. Still got a good burn in the upper thighs, but my calves and lower back were spared the lactic acid attack.

The dead lift to get the mast on to the baseplate is now a thing of the past. The hinged mast base made setup easier, but you still have to walk the mast up before you can go to the bow and secure the forestay - best done with two people (I'll have to figure out a better way to do this).

Conditions were nice - cool water, steady breeze from the N-NNW and very little chop. I squeezed out 13.7 mph out of 16 mph winds - not bad.

We'll see what tomorrow has in store - warmer temperatures and lighter winds = sup'ing.

Shifty Winds and "Look What I found!!!"

Marlon had a friend's birthday party to go to and Noe wanted to go and play with the Bday boy's little sister (her classmate), so I had a free afternoon. The winds were 8-12 from the SSW so...

I loaded up the 11'2" and the windsurfing rig and hit Long Beach. I got to the parking lot and broke out the anemometer - 9 mph on the dot. I dropped the board off at the water's edge and went back to the truck to rig the sail. As I was picking up the sail and walking out to the board, I noticed two kids and their mom hanging out where I left the board. As I got even closer, I noticed the kids were standing on something while the mom was taking their picture. And then they got off MY BOARD and she was picking it up and inspecting it...

I was ten feet away from them and they still did not acknowledge me - the only other person on the beach, and headed straight for them (actually the board) and carrying a windsurfing sail. By the time I was at the board, the mom was on her phone (I'm sure telling someone that she found this big ass board on the beach and she needed help carrying it home so they can sell it..) and I had to ask her to put the board down. She asked if it was my board and I said - yes - without being too much of a jerk (and if you don't already know, about the only thing I hate in this world is when people touch my boards). I sensed an ever so slight challenge coming from her as if she was about to break out the "finders keepers" mantra - but then I essentially walked the sail rig right past them and pulled out the mast base and started to screw it in to the board.

She then started to say she was just about to call the number on the bottom of the board to see if the owner had lost it - I told her those were the dimensions of the board and that she wouldn't reach anybody.

Man, that's the last time I bring the board down to the beach first....

Then, get this, the wind died. And I didn't bring a paddle.... I went out anyways and 20 minutes later the wind started to fill in again. An hour later - after several tacks and jibes, including a few longboardy clew jibes - I pulled up to the beach and packed up for the short ride home.

Weird day....

Lazy Weekend

Got a 5 mile paddle in on Saturday. Moderate North winds kept the paddle interesting (stop paddling for a minute and you just got blown 10' downwind/offshore). My left shoulder is wincing a bit - I was using the Shaka Pu'u - I need to get more shoulder workouts during the week (or drop down to the Methane for longer distance paddling).

Yesterday, I jumped on Roger's boat with Stan Wiles (the current Base XO). Good times had by all as evidenced by Stan-O's ear to ear grin. The wind at the first half of the trip was pretty good - just a hair under 10, but we were routinely getting boat speeds upward of 8. The second half saw a drop in wind speed and we were happy to get 5 out of what was blowing.

Lastly, I am a huge fan of anything with an ama (outrigger), primarily because of the physics and the greatly increased stability. Someone has this canoe parked at the Long Beach Yacht Club - interesting setup.

Getting the hang of it!

Marlon was on fire today!!!

He's standing up on his board and paddling around, even in choppy conditions. The wind picked up today so choppy conditions was what we had, but if it was too much to stand, he'd drop to his knees and kept on going!!!

Big M is awesome!!!

He would paddle out straight up wind and then turn the board around, wait for some swell to peak and then he was catching legitimate swell and running DDW! His DNA is finally showing!

Oh - and I got to windsurf too - at the midpoint of the session, I'd have been in the footstraps (if I had them).

La did make a declaration that the stretch of beach we have been going to (across from a pink house in Long Beach along Hwy 90) is now "Our Beach". The last time we made that declaration was in the Outer Banks (mile marker 11 had a nice cutout before Hurricane Isabel rearranged the dunes).

Nice day!

Another SUP Weekend

We did the same old routine again this weekend -

SUP, SUP-Sailed, Play in the sand, Hang out at the bookstore.

Eat out at Shaggy's, SUP, SUP-Sailed, Played in the sand, cleaned up.

Sounds routine, but we still had tons of fun.

The normal weather pattern has re-established itself. Calm in the morning with building SE winds 5-10 from about 1300 to 1900. Yup - same old, same old.

Something happened yesterday that made me laugh at life -
We were hanging out when a man jogging on the beach with two big dogs (one of the dogs had a missing leg) stopped to take a look at what we were doing. La ended up talking to him a bit and by the end of the conversation, we were accused of "being too sophisticated for being around here..." because we windsurf. We laughed about that the whole way home.

And yeah - that's my hot wife on the board!!!

Elemental

Work has been brutal and so has the weather. Finally got to take a break today.

Had a bunch of stuff to do this morning - work, laundry, cleaning up, groceries - oh, and Noe went horsing around and fell backwards from the couch. After a stint at the local hospital (just to make sure everything was fine), we went back to the house and all breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I got a call from Roger - he was fixing the weight bearing bunkers on his trailer for the F28. The wind was howling and he needed a third pair of hands on the boat to get the boat back on the trailer and put away again.

Well, since we were heading to the beach AND the wind happened to be howling, we might as well PUT A SAIL UP!

We broke out the Element for the first time - La got the board in the water first and paddled it around (despite the wind) - SHE-RA!!!

Then I took it out for a sail - NICE!!! Having multipurpose boards is a wonderful thing!!!

I nailed about half my jibes (way better than I ever did before) and got several tacks in as well. Having been kiting all these years and only dabbling back in windsurfing, it actually feels fun to get the basics back (kinda like riding a bike, kinda - jibes ain't that easy...)

Did I say I love these multipurpose boards?

Oh, and Noe is fine - bouncing around again like nothing even happened.

Swing Weight

Here's an older Naish Boxer rigged and working. I used this yesterday. It's a 5.8 and it is well balanced. By today's standards, a lot more monofilm.

Short luff, fathead for power - nice sail for SUP Sailing.

Today, I rigged up a older Gaastra Poison - dedicated wave sail. This is a 5.4 and granted, today's wind sucked, but the sail seemed to want a bunch more wind to deliver the goods. I'll have to try it again in stringer winds (5-12 mph - ha! I never thought I'd be windsurfing in that low a breeze. Technically its SUP Sailing...)

The forums and blogs also state the Hot Sails Maui Super Freak is a great sail - dacron so it has a steadier, less abrupt onset of power (maybe better for my elbows and shoulders, oh and my knees).

The sails don't look that different. The wind sure did laid out a 'bait and switch' - oh well, Fall is coming and so are the winds...

Today was not the same as yesterday...

Less clouds.

Wind shift (from the WNW).

Much hotter (our SUV thermometer read 112 at one point!!!).

Jellyfish everywhere (damn b@st@rds even got me).

We completely got this one wrong.

But even though there were negatives, it was still fun!

Didn't eek one in...

Roger and Michelle took us out on their F28 yesterday.

Marlon and Noe were super troopers (but bribing them with a $5 boost in their allowance didn't hurt either).

We hit Ship Island, got to picnic, body surf and hunt hermit crabs. Barrier Islands are really cool places - and Ship was no different. After an hour of fun, you could see the thunderboomers off in the distance so we decided it was time to beat feet back to Long Beach, or so we would have liked to.

The thunderstorm system was moving NE at a fairly quick clip, but as we were rounding the NE tip of Cat Island, it stalled and then shifted to the E. The tail end of the system caught us, but the $5 bribe even kept Marlon and Noe chipper despite the gusts/rain/lightning.

I'd say the kids got their sea legs.

Fun day that had a Teki Maki ending!