Marty could not stop smiling. Not on the water. Not off the water. "That was one of my top 10 session ever!", he said. Marty sails a lot, so that means something.
We had hoped to sail at Hardings Beach today. Hardings is perfect for loops - the waves come right at you for starboard jumps. But the wind turned WNW, which would have been really gusty.
So Cape Cod Bay it was. Hardie and I picked Linnell Landing in Brewster as the starting spot, since we planned to sail until 12:30, and the walk back would have been shorter than at Skaket. Ellis Landing is also a great low tide spot in Brewster, but Linnell is closer to where the fun waves are.
Then, Marty decided to join us. Marty likes long sessions. He had tons of fun, slightly overpowered on his favorite 4.7 m sail. Hardie and I said: "I don't do port jumps". Marty said: "Great, I wanted to practice port jumps". He did. And starboard jumps, too.
I put a GPS on Martin. If someone sails a lot, that's great for the "distance" category on the GPS Team Challenge. We sailed for a couple of hours, then Hardie had to leave. But it was just too nice to stop. Gentle rollers, big enough to be interesting, but harmless. Shallow water - standing room only, so to say. Steady wind. Balmy temperatures, considering it is almost Christmas (42ºF, 5ºC). A bit of sun every now and then? Who would not want to keep sailing?
We sailed from 10:30 am to 2 pm. We stopped because the wind dropped; but by then, the water surface had turned to mostly small chop, not as much fun anymore, so. Between Marty and I, we sailed almost 130 km - that's about 3 marathons (well, 1 1/2 each). That would be a good day in the summer. In almost-winter, it's outstanding.
One of the great things about the Skaket area in northwest winds is that you can sail forever in one direction, while staying close to shore. Our longest runs today were about 4 km long (1 1/2 miles), but we always were within 1/2 mile from shore, in chest-deep or shallower water and onshore winds. Sure, it would have been a long walk to shore in case of equipment failure - but not too bad. We know. We sailed until low tide, and had to carry our gear for more than 1/2 mile back to the car. Absolutely worth it!
Of course, both Marty and I wore Ianovated suits and open-palm mittens - the secret to long, fun cold weather sessions.
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| GPS tracks for today |
