Summer heat and formula gear

Saturday afternoon we got home from our trip. I was able to get down to the causeway and rig an 8.5 on the formula board. Art, David and Dino were on the water. I had plenty of power, the wind was out of the NNE and was able to make some long runs up and down the river. Boat traffic was heavy which created a lot of chop close to the channel but the east side was fairly smooth.
Sunday the the conditions were similar with the same sailors on the water. I rigged the same but the wind was a tad lighter.
Tuesday I was able to get on the water after work. Wind was still NNE and I rigged the same but it was definitely lighter. Art was just finishing up on a 7.5 and he said the wind was good coming out of the cove north of Joes point. Ron and David were on the water and I headed up the river. I made some good runs and was opposite Joes point when the wind faded out. I was pretty disappointed and started to schlog back to the causeway. I was 2/3rds of the way there when the wind started to fill in. Ron and Dino came out and we had a blast. Very little boat traffic, fairly flat water and some real nice gusts coming in. We sailed almost to sunset and had a great time.

This was my last day of sailing on Hatteras. In the morning the wind was out of the south so I sailed the canadian hole. In the afternoon the wind shifted west and I sailed out of Frisco Woods campground. It was pretty cool making long runs parallel with the island.

Canadian hole

Weather forecasts on the Outer Banks really don't mean much. Well they are pretty accurate with sunrise and sunset. Today it was supposed to be windy early and then it would fade. This morning the wind was out of the South so I went to the Canadian Hole. I was the only one there at 8am. It was drizzling and there were some small whitecaps on the water. I rigged a 7.0 and some heavy rain came in and then the wind faded. A few more windsurfers showed up and eventually two guys went out on the water. They were catching some gusts so I went out and joined them. The gusts started to fill in and eventually I was overpowered so I went in and rigged a 6.0. By this time 6 of us were on the water and we were buzzing back and forth. Eventually it started to fade so I went back out on my 7.0 and there was about a dozen windsurfers and a dozen kite boarders by this time. I quit after 2 hours and went back to Frisco Woods for lunch. Around 3pm the wind came in out of the west so I rigged the 6.0 and went out but it dropped. So I rigged a 7.0 and went back out. It was pretty cool because you could cruise the coastline. Great way to end our last day on Hatteras.

Sunday the wind was light so we took a trip down to Okracoke. Monday the wind was out of the SE so it was mostly off shore at Frisco Woods. In the morning I drove over to the Hatteras lighthouse and checked out the wave sailing. In the afternoon I rigged an 8.5 and went out for an hour and a half. The water was super flat and their was six of us buzzing around in the sound.

Saturdays track. I measured the longest tracks at 1.8 miles on google earth.

Saturday the wind was supposed to fade early so I rigged a 7.0 and was on the water at 7am. I had the whole sound to myself. I was out for an hour and a half and the wind seemed to be backing down. Some kite boarders were rigging when I came in. The wind did stay up all day and I went out for another hour and a half at 1:30. There was 4 other windsurfers on the water and it turned out to be a good day of sailing.