First Encounter

In west to northwest winds, the iWindsurf meter that consistently shows the strongest readings is the "Hatch Beach" meter. It's a great mystery why it's called "Hatch Beach" - the beach it is on is the First Encounter Beach in Eastham. It you think of Cape Cod as an arm sticking out into the Atlantic that is bent at the elbow, the beach is darn close to the elbow pit. No surprise the wind likes going there!

First Encounter is a kite surfing beach. Windsurfers usually go to Skaket, or to places with better waves. But we tried First Encounter once, and Nina had a great session there. So when we got a wind forecast that promised straight onshore winds at Skaket, but side-on winds at First Encounter, that's were we went.

We arrived near high tide, and the water looked rather uninviting. "But it was so flat last time" said Nina. Well, the tide was about 4-6 feet lower then. With a 10-12 foot tide, the differences in water state are quite dramatic. We dawdled a bit, but eventually made it out onto the water. The Hatch Beach meter often overstates the wind a bit, so we rigged big - 4.7 for Nina, 6.0 for me. Nina ended up a bit overpowered. I like power and was just fine, thank you very much.

Here's a video from the session:

I won't blame you (much) if you call the video boring. I tried a few Carve 360s, but that was it, and those did not work. Otherwise, I was perfectly happy going back and forth. Since the water was quite bumpy at the start, I diverted from my usual straight ways and wove some curvy lines into the water. A little more than a mile out, there was some rather lovely swell for such "wave play" (although, admittedly, calling the swell "waves" is stretching it a bit). But for this straight-line flatwater surfer, it counted as serious fun, and kept me occupied for a while.

After an hour or two, the tide had fallen more than a meter, and it got flatter. I took this as an excuse to sail in a more linear fashion. If anyone had asked, I would have pointed to the GPS on my arm and called it "speed runs", but nobody asked. Just as is started getting really flat, my inner chicken reared it's ugly head and send me scrambling to shore. The water was still mostly more than knee-deep, but there were some shallower areas and shell fishing cages, and I was not sure were exactly all these were. Nina, who was a bit safer on an 8 cm shorter fin, came in shortly afterwards. After we had de-rigged, we took a final look at the water:

It had gotten buttery smooth, and I was a bit jealous of the kiters. Maybe I should order a 15 cm Delta Wing fin from Maui Ultra Fins...
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For all the history buffs among my readers: the name "First Encounter Beach" reflects that this is where the Pilgrims first encountered Native Americans,  a little while prior to their settling in Plymouth. 

Numbers

20: days sailed in October.
Includes 2 weeks in Hatteras, one day with sessions at two different spots on Cape Cod, and 3 light wind days.

Hatteras Sunset

28: wind averages (in mph) when we decided to go windsurfing today, despite the rain
35: wind averages when we rigged
41: wind averages when we sailed
49: wind gusts when we sailed
3.4 and 4.0: our sail sizes today. It's rare that we get to sails this small - maybe 1-2x a year. Even rarer that we are overpowered on these sails. Happens once every few years. Tomorrow will be even windier.

24: top speed (in mph) today in 41 mph winds
28: typical top speed I have on a day when wind averages are 20 mph

6.7: distance (in km) I sailed today
52: average distance I sailed per day (with planing conditions) in October
138: maximum distance I sailed on one day in October
270: maximum distance I ever sailed on one day
742: distance (in km) sailed by Dennis Klaaijsen when he set the 24-hour windsurfing record.
He jibed 395 times, falling 5 times (98.7% dry rate).

Skaket Beach, Orleans, Cape Cod

Andy and Caesar movie

At the ABK camp Cape Cod in September, Andy Brandt and Caesar Finies gave us a little demonstration what light wind freestyle can look like. Conditions were not ideal, with gusty winds from 5-20 mph; furthermore, both Andy and Caesar were on unfamiliar boards. That did not keep them from putting on a great show - here is a short video:


It's interesting to see the rather different styles in direct comparison. Andy does a lot of "old school" tricks like fin-first upwind 360s that are technically quite difficult, but take 10-15 seconds to complete. In contrast, many of Caesar's tricks are sail-throws or sail-body movements that take only a second or two. In the 10 seconds that one of the "old school" moves takes, Caesar strings together a whole bunch of different moves, often mixing simple ones like sail-body 360s with hard ones like Jaw Breakers and Ankle Biters. Andy's style is super-clean and very technical; Caesar's is fast and furious. I'm just glad that this was a demonstration, not a competition where we had to pick a winner! Many thanks to Caesar and Andy for showing us what you can do on a windsurf board in light winds.

Fall windsurfing

Check the picture above. Do you see the long sleeves? The mittens? Fall is here! I think that's just great.

Fall arrived yesterday. It had been warm for most of September, with temperatures often in the 70s (around 25ºC), lots of sun, no rain for weeks, and little wind. Yesterday, the wind came. So did the rain. We looked at the wind meter readings: low to mid 20s (mph) - let's go sailing! We looked out the window: NO! Rain, clouds, general nastiness - why not stay home? Nina stayed home, I went sailing.

I arrived in Duxbury half-deaf from the rain drumming on the van. Big van = lots of drumming. Nobody there - I'd have the whole bay for myself. First runs out - nice power! Time to check out the north side ... then the wind takes a break. Schlogging my 96 l board is work. I almost give up and drive home, but decide to give my Skate 110 a chance to shine. It does - and then the wind picks back up again. Fun on the Skate! All alone in the rain and fog, I play it safe, mowing the lawn instead of freestyling. But who cares - nobody sees me, anyway, and I'm having fun. I'm happy to be back in my warm Ianovated suit (with the tubes removed) - it's overkill, but so comfortable. I'm warm - who cares that it's raining hard? My Gath visor helmet keeps the rain out of my eyes.

The great thing about northeast winds in the fall is that they tend to stick around. When we woke up this morning, the wind was still there. The rain had left us, though - well, mostly, at least, with just a little drizzle every now and then. So today, my lovely wife decided to join me for the trip to Duxbury. We launched from the Shipyard Lane Beach for a change, since the local windsurfers told me many times that it's a better launch. Indeed, the parking lot is nice, and it has a grassy rigging area. But in today's NNE wind, there also was quite a bit of wind shadow close to shore, not too different from the usual Powder Point Bridge launch. What was different, however, was the chop. Even near low tide, there was a lot more of it. Nice for jumping - not so nice for speed or freestyle. Nina, Jeff, and I decided to sail upwind to look for smoother water, which we finally found about a mile upwind. We stayed there for a while, now closer to our usual launch from the bridge than to Shipyard Lane Beach. The wind was plainly fantastic, nice and steady in the upper 20s. It made planing through jibes easy; even if you messed up a bit, there was always plenty of power to get going again right away. Nice!

We stopped after three hours, when Jeff had to leave and Nina started to feel pain from a pulled muscle. I could have sailed more, but with about 120 km sailed since yesterday, my endorphin levels had been sufficiently replenished to stop. Here are today's tracks: