Monday, November 24, 2014

Crowds on the water

It's windy, and I'm not sailing. Ok, I should add "yet" - I'm waiting a bit so that I'll start at the same time as some of my friends. We'll have crowds on the water again. No big surprise today - it will be warm, with water + air temperature > 100ºF (water 48, air 55). That's warm. I will be overheating on the water. I'll be glad when I blow my jibes. I might event have to try freestyle so I fall more often.

If you're windsurfing near Cape Cod, but stop in October, you're missing out big time. Today will be my 12th day of sailing in November - that's every other day. Wind averages were above 20 most days; two days ago, they were around 35. That was just a perfect day - fully powered on 4.0. Not a big deal for Gorge sailors or light-weight Californians, perhaps - but it was only the second time this year that this 195 lb sailor got to use a 4.0. Very much to my surprise, I was perfectly comfortable, even when it was still bumpy close to high tide. As the water level dropped, it got flat, with nice little waves to play with - perfection!

You can see how it got flatter in the GPS speed graph:
(Don't get exited - speeds are in kmh, not knots, silly!).

With air temperatures in the low- to mid-40s, there were a lot of Ianovated wetsuits to be seen. Towards the end of the day, the last 4 windsurfers all wore Ianovated suits. It's so easy to do 3-hour sessions when you can warm your hands with a few puffs into the warming tube! And now, you can buy the suit in the US, and Wind-NC in Hatteras. Beaches will certainly get more crowded on the cold days!

The wind stuck around another day, so we went for another session yesterday morning. Seeing Marty throw himself into loop tries, I conquered my inner chicken a bit, and went for a few tries myself. They were halfhearted tries, but better than not trying at all. At least, I got whipped around a bit: