Green Recreation

Jason will appreciate this tale from sailboarding at Kalmus in 1995. The wind was a northerly and everyone was on a broad reach back and forth across the shipping channel. As I approached the channel I looked over my left shoulder, saw nothing and proceeded into the channel when I heard a loud ship's horn. I looked again and there was the Nantucket car ferry, big as day and bearing down on me. Damn, it must've blended in with the buildings on shore, I somehow didn't see it.

I hung in in the harness and straps, praying for my life I wouldn't fall in front of the massive thing. Scared the bejeezuz out of me!
 
Marc, I know that behemoth all to well.
I've gotten religion in that channel. The ships tend to appear out of thin air. You should try and out run the new high speed island ferries. Nothing like a dieing breeze when looking down the barrel of gun(200' ferry)
 
Got my ass kicked yesterday.

Went out to the lake during my lunch. It took me 15 minutes from my office, rigged, ready and on the water. Not bad.

Winds were showing 10-15mph on the lake monitoring system which shows realtime online. I really wanted to plane, so I took out my 7.5m sail. Started off ok and suddenly winds were up to 25mph and I was out of control. Attempted a tack and I was in the drink quickly. Waves were 2-3' and crashing. I managed to waterstart, but was quickly down again. A few more tries with similar results. Once i got up, I couldn't get underway. It felt like I was getting backwinded. I didn't know WTF was going on. I even uphauled and had the same results just as soon as I would put my hand on the boom to sheet in. I was getting tired fast and inhaled a lot of water. Started swimming in :oops: . It was humiliating. I felt like I lost all my skills.

I rigged up my 6m sail and the winds seemed to level out and I trepidaciously went back out for a little more...but it was clear that first episode wore me out. I couldn't even get on plane, and tacking was not going well with the big chop and just one miss made for an exhausting uphaul. Waterstarts weren't happening with the smaller sail and lighter winds. So I gave up and went back to work to rest up for a potential post-work session. I left my sails rigged at the club shed, so I was back at my desk by 2pm.

At 5pm winds were around 10 and dropping. The 7.5m sail was fine, but still not enough to plane or waterstart. After a few slogs back in forth, I went in and got the 6m sail to practice jibes. I am finally getting the hang of the pivot jibe but can execute them in light wind only.

I just wish the wind was more consistent around here. It is always pretty frustrating.

Makes the idea of a move (retirement) to the PNW more enticing. I hope that I can windsurf when I'm 55-60 and up...but I gotta say...this sport is physically demanding...especially for the novice/intermediate. I just want to get over this intermediate hurdle so it becomes much easier on the bod.
 
Sharon... You will get over the intermediate hurdle just give it time.
That said, when the wind blows 25 i'm on 5.6 and i weigh 170. You can also try a smaller fin in high wind choppy conditions. I also find if you nudge the mast forward a bit it will keep the nose down. Survival sailing will help you learn to manage your energy. nothing like going over the handle bars a few times to make you change your technique. good luck and keep on sailing..
 
Makes the idea of a move (retirement) to the PNW more enticing. I hope that I can windsurf when I'm 55-60 and up...but I gotta say...this sport is physically demanding...especially for the novice/intermediate. I just want to get over this intermediate hurdle so it becomes much easier on the bod.
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I didn't get over it, though I wasn't trying that hard, just 2-3 days a year. I do recall my friends telling me that lake winds were much more erratic than ocean winds though. My friend Dave said it's nearly always physically demanding, and he thus thinks much conditioning and practice would be needed for him to restore the skills he had when he lived in SoCal 1987-1996.
 
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