Finished Sanding

Sanding.

Ughhhh.

Southern Mississippi summer.

Uggghhhhhh.

Temps in the high 90s.

Uuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

Next week paddling with the kids on their own boards -

Well worth every ounce of effort!!!

More next weekend on this one ;)

Baby Birds

Not that this is amphibious, but it is amusing - one of the smaller trees at our house is hosting a bird nest.

The eggs and now the hatchlings have been keeping the kids super interested.

The amusing thing? These guys are sporting mop tops!

Now the amphibious part - while we are on an animal discussion, we caught a small turtle on Saturday. It was hanging out in the middle of the culdesac (most likely sunning itself, but to the kids, it had a deathwish - and no one wants to see a squashed turtle, no pretty).

We are giving it a temporary home in the backyard. Pictures to follow.

:)

The Marines have landed

The Marines have a Reserve Unit here in Gulfport that work with Amphibious Troop Transports. The locals get to see them practice on the weekends occasionally.

The family got lucky yesterday and saw them splash on their way out, and make their landing after a day of training.

This place is full of surprises!

Happy New Year!!!

First Sunset of the year!!!

Also - this place seems to have great potential for a fishing site. This is the lighthouse between Gulfport and Biloxi. Marlon and I will have to check it out one of these mornings (after a full moon, with real bait, and dressed warmly).

May you all stick to your resolutions, stay healthy and spend lots of time in/on/around/underneath the water in 2010!!!

FINALLY!!!!

Everything lined up - the wind, time off, willing kids, decent weather - all to allow me to release my pent up stress from not surfing for nearly two months!!!!

Used an old, but reliable Naish V4 16m kite. C kites are where the power is -

Was out from 1400 to 1600 (note the gusts near 20 - nice)

Hopefully the weather starts to change and the winds start to set in more regularly... I could use the kiting sessions more often (at least more often than once every two months).

AWESOME!!!

Wind inbound

Of course there was wind today.

When I can't break free from work (we got to tour the Secretary of the Navy around today - got to show him the tactical trainers we have here) the wind BLOWS -

Nothing epic, just enough to torture me mentally. Would definitely have been fun on a 20m kite or the Trimaran.

Tomorrow is another day....

Wind graph credited to iwindsurf.com (you guys are awesome)

Amphibious Weekend (Sun)

Today, we got more errands done in the morning, then we rigged HOO-YAH!!!! up for a sail.

Launched at East of the Long Beach Yacht Club. The boat drag from the parking lot to the waterline was not bad. After rigging (40 minutes this time), we set sail and made three runs out and back. With both kids and La and I onboard, our best speed was 10.5 mph (average 8). Marlon was feeling a little green around the gills and Noe couldn't stay awake (past her nap time). La was having a blast! Until we jibed and the sail took her favorite hat off her head. We tried rescuing it, but failed - our first offering to the Gulf of Mexico.

The windward ama would fly pretty easily - Marlon was amused by the splashing water. Splashing really warm water. Splashing, really warm water and the really warm air. Nice warm day, in and out of the water. You probably get my point. But nevertheless a great day - sunny weather, puffy clouds in the sky and the family hanging out together.

I took the family in and went back out to see just how fast I could go - got 11.9 mph out of the boat. I'm not sure of the wind - but according to the websites that produce wind speed/direction charts, the wind didn't break 15 (on the gusts) and was averaging 12 - so the Weta was close (if not spot on) to matching wind speed.

We tried using the screacher - but will probably have to do a long downwinder before getting better results.

This is going to be a good substitute for the readily available surf that Port Hueneme had. Hopefully we'll be able to sail on the weekends more now.

Aloha!

Amphibious Weekend (Sat)

We are still cleaning the house and getting it set up. More pictures on the walls, eternal laundry, moving boxes around in the garage to get organized, but on Saturday, we also took a couple of hours to go paddle.

The kids were digging holes as usual, and they found some hermit crabs again.

I modified one of the suction cup handles I had used to carry the old Naish 11'6" SUP to hold my Garmin 60CSx. The setup worked perfectly! Top speed into the wind 4.2 mph (working my butt off) with an average of 3.2 mph. Downwind was a much different story - 5.9 top speed with an average of 4.5 mph

Oh and a bonus - we ate at the Panda Palace Chinese Food Buffet. The kids and I love Chinese food (we ate a lot at Panda Express back in California). La on the other hand HATES chinese food - especially from buffets - so this was a big deal.

We got a lot done around the house and had a good time at the beach too!

Lazy Paddling Day

Finally got around to downloading the pictures I took this past Sunday with the GoPro.

La and I took both Point to Point (P2P) SUPs out each with a kid onboard.

Everyone had a great time! We saw a bunch of Brown Pelicans dive bombing the fish schools and got to ride some tiny windswell on the way back to the starting point.

I am really surprised SUP has not caught on down here. This is the perfect place to run fitness clinics (like they do at Ala Moana lagoon), distance races and beginner lessons on surf oriented boards.

Oh well - I bet once we move from here it'll take off (my typical track record).

One last thing - Big M is a camera ham.

A-lo-ha!

Gulfport SUPing

In between getting used to the new job and unpacking the house, I have managed to get out a few times. I've mapped out a couple of distance routes, so far on either side of the Port of Gulfport. There is downwinder potential here, but until I find another SUPer to share car shuttling duties with, I'll have to paddle up to paddle down.

Bathymetry wise, this area is really shallow. And here at the end of Summer, the water is hot - not warm, but HOT. Mix that in with the flat water, and Marlon and Noe are no longer scared of the water.

I did find a spot that shoals in a way that reveals wind swell. I'm not talking Maliko run sized swell, but when you are as wave-energy dependent as I am, you will tell yourself anything to keep your sanity. The swell was close to 6", but enough to catch with the distance SUPs.

I will have to get creative to keep from falling apart over the next two years... Again - if there are any SUPers out there in cyberland that live in the Gulfport area, sound off so we can get the scene going here!!!

Gulfport, Mississippi

And here is where we are moving to - Gulfport.

The beaches are wide and the wind is side-on shore.

The water is brown...

There was no surf to speak of - not even wind swell.

I'll have to transition back to kiting and distance SUPing and...

we'll have to get one of these to distract me (the Weta or a Hobie, still trying to decide)!!!

Also, the reference I made to knowing that 20 miles of paddling is reassuring - there are offshore islands that block the surf - I can either paddle to them and back or paddle to them, blow them up so the surf will come through (JUST KIDDING - if you were offended, I was just kidding).