photo album 2/21/10

2010_2_21

It was a week since I had been on the water. Sundays forecast was light wind out of the SE, formula sailing in a warm southerly wind sounded appealing. I arrived at the causeway around 3:00. Austin was on the water, Dino and Ron were rigging. The wind was light but Dino assured me he could see some white caps, I think his sunglasses needed cleaning. I went out on a 10.5 and had to schlogg 2/3 of the way to the House of Refuge and found some wind. We had a good time buzzing around out there. On the way back David and Gaetane were in their boat taking some pictures and Charles was windsurfing.

I heard friday was a windy day. Someone (Dino) kept texting me repeatedly how epic the conditions were.
Saturday the front blew through and I arrived at the causeway around 10:00. It was 47 degrees and Greg was already there. It looked like 6.0 but, I guess, we were waiting for it to warm up some. After a couple hours the temp came up a few degrees but the wind was backing down. Gregg left and Art and a few others showed up. I rigged a 7.0 and was out for an hour or so, wind was NW and it was sunny. There was about 6 of us out and a couple kite borders.

Friday 2/5 I was out on a 92L synchro with a 5.0 and had plenty of power. Wind was out of the SE and I sailed out to the House of Refuge. There was a pretty good crowd of windsurfers on the water.
Tuesday the wind was supposed to gust up to 30mph out of the SSE. When I got to the causeway the wind had dropped off some and most everyone had rigged in the 5.5 range. I only had an hour so I rigged for the current conditions with a 7.0. I had to schlog south but once I hit the wind line I was powered up. The wind was out of the south but was clocking around westward and the holes started to get larger and larger. I had a good time, water was fairly flat and when the gusts came in at times I was overpowered.

Sad day for watersports

Steve Schafer, a kite boarder, died from a shark attack off Stuart beach. My condolences to his family and friends.
Dino told me that Steve used to windsurf but that was before I took up the sport. Our paths crossed a couple times, once Steve and his friend Scott fished me out of the river when I broke a boom.
James Douglass, a marine biologist, who windsurfs at the Ft Pierce inlet has an interesting post on his blog.

Yesterday the wind was out of the N so I sailed at the south jetty in Ft Pierce. I rigged a 6.0 on my 92L board. I had trouble getting on plane on the way out but I could usually catch a wave and get planning on the way in. I will have to work on my light wind skills.

Flat water blasting to wave sailing, all in one weekend!

Saturday the wind was out of the south and shifting westward with the approaching front. I arrived at the causeway around 10:30 and rigged a 7.0 on my 118L board. Dorian was out on a 6.0 and was underpowered but he was expecting the wind to build. I had a good 2 hours on the water but as the wind clocked westward and dragged some clouds with it the holes got bigger and bigger. When I finished there was a lot of windsurfers and a handful of kitters at the causeway. I tried to take some pictures but two sets of batteries failed me. There was over a dozen rigs laying on the beach.
Sunday the wind was blowing out of the north at 22 mph. I met James D at the south jetty in Ft Pierce and Jon was there as well. That is the neatest place to learn to wave sail, the water on the south side of the jetty is flat and on an outgoing tide a nice clean swell is awaiting at the end of the jetty. I rigged a 5.2 (thanks James for loaning me the sail) on my 92L synchro and was nicely powered. To me the swell looked huge (Jon said waist high) but on the river the biggest I see is cabin cruiser wake. So for the first hour or so I was just getting used to this rolling landscape. I can't wait to go out again, maybe on a good southeast wind I will try the north jetty, although southeast at the House of Refuge is hard to beat.