Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Maybe it's my fault

Windsurfers up here in the northeast US are getting pretty frustrated - it has been a long time since we have had really good winds. There have been a few weekends where some lighter guys like Dani were able to plane on big slalom gear, but it seems it has been ages since we had a day with wind in the 20s.

Superstitious as any old windsurfer, I am starting to suspect that it may be my fault. The lack of wind has not bothered me, since I did not really have much opportunity to make it to the water in the last two months. The few times we sailed, like at the ECWF, I was perfectly happy with light winds. My theory is that the wind gods are rewarding and helping me - rewarding for sailing in light wind, and helping by keeping the better winds much further down south (OBX and Texas seemed to have a lot of good days) so that I was able to concentrate on moving closer to the water.

We have spent most of our weekend time in the past few months with getting our house ready for sale and related tasks. The work has paid off - we got a nice offer for the house within 5 days after putting it on the market, and it looks like the sale will actually happen. We have looked at houses near Hyannis on Cape Cod a bit, and will be driving down again in the next couple of days. The windsurf gear will stay at home again!

From what we have seen on our first visit and on the web, we'll be able to find a nice house within a 10 minute drive from Kalmus. Getting much closer makes little sense - the houses right at the ocean cost at least 10-fold more, and anything a bit further back would require a drive, anyway. And while we will probably sail a lot at Kalmus, Lewis Bay, and the Kennedy Slicks, we will also be driving to other places in northerly winds. Being closer to Kalmus would only make these drives longer.

Our hope is to find a place that we really like by the end of this week. Banks need a bit longer these days to approve the mortgage, but if everything goes ok, we should be able to move to Cape Cod in September. The last couple of years, we had plenty of wind from September through December, and this year should be at least as good - all the wind that's not showing up now has to blow sometime! Fall is the best time, anyway: the water is still warm until the beginning of December, the beaches are empty, and the boats are off the water, so that Hyannis Port Harbor transforms back into the Kennedy Slicks. Who knows, maybe we'll even find a house with a jacuzzi to warm up after winter windsurf sessions - or perhaps we'll install a sauna. One thing that's certain, though, is that the house will have a guest room for visiting family and windsurfer friends. Hope to see you all on the Cape soon!