Thermonuker! Blown off the beach at South Jamesport

“It’s a bagful of crazy out there,” Christian said.   And that was when it was still possible to sail!  

The day had started auspiciously enough...I ran into Alec Baldwin at Starbucks early Saturday morning.  "I gotta go windsurfing...what the heck are YOU doing up so early?"   He didn't answer.  Then again, I didn't really ask, but I was thinking it.   Afterwards I called Peconic Jeff to verify the location.

For ENE winds we’d usually try the Bowl, but the sea was chaotic so a retreat to the bays was decided.   Sailing from South Jamesport Scott and the Wolf were on it early on 3.7’s.  Then Peconic Jeff, Christian and I showed up…like an idiot I rigged a 4.0.  Between being grossly overpowered (on shore the guys were rigging down to 3.3’s) and my bum leg you couldn’t even call what I was doing windsurfing…I just was blown out a few hundred yards before I sat down in the water, kicked the gear around and got blown back.

Dragged myself up onto the beach, got laughed at by Scott, rigged my 3.4, and actually got 30 good seconds in.  Comfortable, dialed in, yes we were going to have a great time!  

Then the big gusts started, punctuated by lulls.    For about an hour the drill was:

1.  Stand on the beach and bitch for five minutes
2.  Tweak gear and launch again.
3.   Blow jibe, come back, and wait for the conditions to settle down.
4.  Notice that every time you go out, you find yourself hankering for how it was ten minutes earlier.

By and by were found ourselves all standing on the beach together.  It was blowing 30, gusting to 40+.   The gusts were so strong that you could lean into the wind and have it hold you up.  Carrying gear was becoming dangerous.  Being us, we tried launching again.

Fortunately nobody was hurt.   Scott proclaimed that the day was no longer fun, and we very carefully got our gear off the beach.  

(Leaning into a nuclear gust.  Photo by Jeff.)

Comments

[ralph]

sick. gusts with lulls is tough sailing. lull comes so broad reach then gust comes so it is like trying to keep a tree from falling.

[scott k.]

that pictuure is the pecuffin holding my board down so it doesnt blow away before i pick it up !!

[Michael]

It's that too! But as you can clearly see that my ass is not over my feet, something mighty is holding me up.

Those gusts were crazy. So much liquid smoke!

[scott k.]

you forgot to mention how hard you got slammed that you helmet blew off!!

[george markopoulos]

man i love those thermo-nuclear sesh's. glad ya'll got some.
live2sail

[cd]

Two wind chimps in some kind of weird wind dance,good stuff!