We went windsurfing at West Dennis today, and had a blast. The wind was not as great as forecast, but good enough to get planing on a 7.0 at first, and later on a 5.5 (albeit slightly underpowered). But the best part were the air temperatures which reached the low 40s (maybe 7 C). With some sun every now and then, it felt downright balmy and allowed us to go "light" on the cold weather gear: fewer layers under the dry suit, open-palm gloves or mitts, and light caps instead of the restrictive full hoods. Nice!
The best part was being able to sail without heavy gloves or mittens. I started out with cut-out gloves and mitt shells, but dropped the shells later. Nina switched from Dakine cold weather mittens to bare hands and later open-palm mitts. It's amazing how much easier things got! My fingers got cold a bit at the end, but that's mainly because I started screwing up my jibes, and the water temperatures are still close to 0 C (32 F). But still, a great day. The weather forecast for this week has a lot more warm days, so the water should start to warm up soon, too. Rejoice, the end of winter is near!
First day in Hatteras
3 days ago