Doing the hula

This was taken today by Belligham Herald photographer Andy Bronson. He introduced himself as I was rigging, and I guess he liked the line about me taking a liquid lunch. Hard to tell from this that once out of the wind-shadow on shore, I was perfectly powered up on my 7.1. Nice big swell to jibe on - would have made for great port ramps, but I'm still holding off a bit on impact until the ankle is fully back to normal. The flip-side of that, however, were nice smooth troughs on starboard, allowing for going warp speed in what otherwise tends to be pretty rough water. Nice way to spend an hour on a Friday. Given that it was published on the Herald web site, I'm glad I didn't have to cancel any appointments with the old excuse of having to go to a "board meeting"...

Flying the foils

Last week, I had this rather nice and unremarkable session on Bellingham Bay. I started out with 10.8 and a "big" Finworks 70cm (more on the rather excellent Finworks foils in a future post soon), having plenty of power to plane and push it up or downwind at significant angles in all of 8-10 knots. Then the breeze started increasing to 12-15, and I changed fins down to a "smaller" 70cm. Worked like a charm.

My friend Dale McKinnon came out for a row and brought her camera (she was the the one to take the picture - thanks Dale!) - which was instantly rewarded with the until-then sunny conditions turning misty and dark. At this point, it was gusting into the low twenties, and I was seriously overpowered (the pic above was shot from behind the protection of a dock; the waterstate outside in the Bay no longer permitted sailing in any kind of control, and she would not have been able to take the hands off the oars for even a minute to pick up her camera out there).

I like this shot - it shows you just how efficient Formula gear can be in terms of reducing wetted surface (and drag).

The view from home

...or, more precisely, the view from Tony's porch, two houses down from mine. Tony took this a few weeks ago; this was my second session back on the water after recovering from my shoulder injury. I was out on my 7.2 Sailworks NXfw and my new Exocet Warp Slalom 67, and the combo worked exceedingly well even in the somewhat gusty and streaky conditions found on the lake (the board glides well through lulls and stays controllable even in the big gusts, and the sail is just so insanely rangey that it's truly a joy).

And that pretty much answers the obvious (at least to all my non-sailing friends and neighbors) question as to why I don't sail the lake more often. It's rare for winds to be anything other than really flukey due to the terrain all around. The hills don't outright block the wind (we get tremendous southeasterlies shaking the house all the time in the winter), but they do make it very inconsistent.

That said, sailing the lake does have its charms. The views are nice, safety is a non-issue, it takes me all of a minute to get to the launch at Bloedel Donovan Park, and my kids get extremely excited seeing Dad on the water from their own deck. On this particular day, the wind was SE, but too easterly to sail the bay, plus I only had a short window of opportunity - so instead of waiting for things to fill in from the south and squander my chance to sail, I had a pretty nice session and got back to working. Not a bad life ;)


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Veteran's Day Storm

The pic on the right (courtesy Dale McKinnon) shows what she saw from shore at Post Pt. today. Yes, that frothing mess of water is Bellingham Bay, a generally calm and peaceful part of the Northwest inland waters. Wind readings were off the charts at iWindsurf today (literally, as their new dynamic graphs top out somewhere around 50 mph). Airport recorded gusts around 60 knots; BCS showed peaks in the mid-70's mph range.

The pic was taken from shore at Marine Park - so her camera's vantage point was about 8 feet above water level. Clearly, the swell was well over head high. Mike Sumpter reported huge (100' high) spin drifts earlier in the day. Most of the guys apparently went to Cherry Point for some saner conditions. Not sure who that lone sailor is; might be Brett, taking his Bonzer for a ride.

It's been really windy the last two days or so. Yesterday and the day before, there was quite a bit of sunshine thrown into the mix as well. Oh well, back to taking care of that shoulder...

Windy...

A good weekend for us Bellinghamsters. Temps in the mid-50's, a rocking southerly (the graph shows what happened at the north end of the bay, which doesn't get the benefit of the venturi generated by the SE pushing by the Chuckanuts), very low tide (meaning you could walk out to the windline, so no need for the usual swim/slog), and all that conveniently timed for a Sunday morning. It just doesn't get much better than that.

While participants in the first ever Bellingham Marathon were probably cursing the breeze, there was a contingent of 8-10 sailors off Post Pt., enjoying the playground Mother Nature provided with solid winds and big rolling (and, at times and in some places, surprisingly smooth) swell.

After years of rationalizing repeated beatings (here and here are some accounts of the not-so-painful ones; there were others which I simply refused to document...) received on slalom gear in these conditions, I finally took the hint and got myself a small freeride board. At 80 liters, it's a bit smaller than I would have wanted (slogging is still painful), but the price was right. The single rear strap, curvy wave fin, inset/forward strap positions, and detuned rails made for a very different sailing sensation. Just sailing along, it's pretty much effortless; you're just not going very fast. You can ride swells, and getting air is a lot less scary than on slalom kit.

The sailing style is the big difference. On fast gear, safety lies in holding the hammer down. If you back off, or god forbid sheet out, you start tailwalking and end up in a yardsale. Of course, that strategy is limited by waterstate, as the resulting warp speed will at some point lead you up and off a stray piece of chop - and the crater resulting from that tends to be pretty spectacular. The freeride stuff, on the other hand, allows you to back off when things get out of hand. The wipeouts come when you do try to push it - and find that the fin just can't handle it, so you're spinning out as your going at Mach speed through a trough. Different kind of sailing, for sure. Hopefully, we'll have lots of winter storms this season to help me get reacquainted with that ;)

The kiters at the north end of the bay were apparently passing the single 3m kite around the group to share. Of course, most of their usual crowd were down at Post Pt. windsurfing on 3.7's to 4.7's. I was on a 5.0 Retro, which was perfect at the beginning, and kept handling the building winds really well with a bit more downhaul.

As the front came closer, the clouds moved in and it started to rain - hard. That was right around the time most of the marathoners were gritting their teeth through the last miles of the race. Kudos to them for sticking it out; I certainly preferred being on the water in that weather.

Sublime morning session

Instead of heading to the gym this morning at 5, I took advantage of the breeze and went for a quick sail on Bellingham Bay. The light was amazing, and the bay was sparkling like a jewel, with the mountains rounding out the panorama. Great reminder why people come up here to spend their vacations. Met a bunch of friendly seals, a couple sailboats, and the early-bird fishermen. Glorious way to get an early morning workout. Of course, this being the Northwest, the sun rose at 4-ish - so I guess that means this doesn't really count as dawn patrol.

Knifey

That's how Bruce described the feeling to be expected from my new 9.9 when going upwind overpowered. Thanks to 20+ knots of gusty breeze on the Bay today, I had a chance to try that out - and it's about as apt a description as I could think of. It just settles down and drives with no jerking even in the biggest gusts - allowing you to keep the foils lit up and the hammer down.

Downwind is also really sweet - even with the outhaul all the way dumped off, the draft doesn't move around and the sail stays nice and stable - breathes nicely with changes in apparent wind (from gusts, or as you're hitting the back of swells), doesn't stall (as slippery sails usually do off the breeze), and just keeps driving. With the rig behaving so nicely, you can stay way longer in the outside strap even when the water gets pretty gnarly.

The southern part of Bellingham Bay dished up great practice for Nationals in San Francisco today - lots of breeze (baseline around 20+ knots), with some big puffs coming out of nowhere, confused water, and the occasional VW Bug-sized rollers coming through. Good stuff. Could have easily slalom sailed out there, but that would have been long slog/swim out to the windline and back to shore, as it was early pre-frontal and thus too offshore. Gotta love Formula gear - you just go where you want to and cover whatever ground necessary to get to the breeze.

March madness weekend in Bellingham

This is the wind graph from the north end of the bay on Saturday. Temps were in the high fifties. I got to Post Pt. when it looked like powered 7.2 slalom sailing in the morning. As soon as I had rigged, it had picked up a few notches, so I switched to the 6.0. Then it really picked up a went more East than I really wanted to deal with at Post (huge wind shadow off shore, and lots of swirly gusts coming down and around the Chuckanuts), so I moved up north to Little Squalicum Beach, next to the Plywood plant. Things were kind of light on the beach, so I stuck with my 100 liter slalom board and the 6.0. Cleared the pier in two tacks, then found myself in head-high swell with the spray getting blown off the top. Hung on going out against the swell on port tack (which was hugely lifted due to the Easterly component), trying to keep from getting launched into the stratosphere on that big board. Had some really exciting rides back in on starboard, shooting at warp speed along the troughs. Would invariably get myself tripped up over stray chop coming the other way and had some big spills. Reason prevailed, and I packed it in.

Sunday was windy again. I didn't get out until later afternoon; most of the locals had already bagged it after hours spent on very flattened 4.2's. Since it was due South now (around 4:30), and the tide was way low, I could use my smaller slalom board and the 5.0 and launch from Post Pt. The tide was so low, in fact, that I could walk right out to the windline - no swimming required. Spray was still flying, and it was all I could do to keep the board on the water going out on port into the swell bending around the point (roughly shoulder high, with lots of freaky chop mixed in). The rides through the troughs on starboard were amazing. Bailed just in time before the big rain squall killed the wind (that's the sharp dropoff around 5:30). Not sure if that's the end of winter storm season or not - we sure had a lot of them this year, including the epic one on November 15 that gusted up to 82mph at the Cold Storage (I sat that one out...) Maybe it's time to reconsider the notion that a small B&J board doesn't pay since we only have a handful of really windy days each year anyway...

Sure nice to be sailing in warmer air temps again - no need for gloves.

One of those sessions...

So today I had one of those sessions. Last time I went sailing (last week), it was sunny, low-to-mid 50's, and nice steady breeze. Mt. Baker loomed in the distance, the bay was sparkling, and I was perfectly powered on my 9.9 and FW board. Today, it was raining hard, the wind was a bit on the gusty side, and with all the snowmelt that's been coming down the rivers, the water was downright nippy even though the air was close to 50. Wind readings were all over the place - all I could tell from shore was that out in the channel, it was windy and there was some big swell.

I rigged my 6.0 and my slalom board, slogged out through the wind shadow (only two short swims until I reached the wind line - not too bad), and found myself massively overpowered. Spent an hour on the water doing survival sailing - a 4.8 or even a 4.2, and a smaller freeride board would have been the call, as things were getting furry and there was the occasional hint of liquid smoke. Held on for an hour, and when my hallpass was about to expire, I came back in on a long broad reach taking advantage of some rare smooth swell - until the off-shore gust from inside the Chuckanuts hit me head on, so I got to swim in the last 300 yards through the icy Padden Creek outflow. Brrr...

As I carried my stuff up on the beach, this guy on the beach asked me how it was out there. And reflexively, I said 'great.' After all, I'd just successfully ditched work for a couple of hours to log some TOW, so yes, it was great. Not sure if it was a whole lot of fun, though - between the numb toes and the hanging-on-for-dear-life bit, I'd describe it more as character-building. Or maybe life-affirmingly stupid... ;)

All that's missing is a bow...

Not only did Santa come early with a nice session on 12/23, but I even got a hall pass on Christmas Day. Perfect 9.9 conditions (roughly 15-18 knots out on the Bay, with occasionally brilliant sunshine and reasonable temps around 48F). Not quite Baja, but great stuff nonetheless. The coolest thing was how it came about, as my wife and daughter looked out the window as I was taking out the who-knows-how-manieth load of paper recycling that comes with having Christmas with two kids and visiting grandparents, determined it was windy, and told me that they had another present for me ;)

Another good one...

Yes, it really is storm season now. Had another windy day today; while not as epic as last week's storm (and not packing as much moisture, hopefully sparing the region from more flooding), there was plenty of breeze. Sailed Post Pt.; found Glenn there, who had driven up from the South Sound. He started on a 4.8 Hucker and his 80 liter board; I started on my 24" wide Roberts slalom with a 6.0. It quickly became apparent that it was windy (it's hard to tell sometimes from shore, since it's a wee bit offshore, and visibility isn't that great). I found out later that the sensor at the cold storage at the north end of the bay was registering gusts into the 40's, with one spike up to 50. I'd say we probably had (once outside in the channel) about 30-35 mph as a base, with frequent puffs that took the spray off the waves.

I came back to shore after a few reaches to rig down. Decided to try something truly stupid - a 5.0 on my big slalom board, offset with a 32cm fin (I usually run a 34 with my 6.0). Surely, this couldn't work, but the small board wasn't really an option (it's got all of 70 liters, I weight 210#, and there was a big hole to about 1/4 plus from shore). Lo and behold, the combo actually felt pretty good. Sure, it was hard to keep the board down at times, but the monster puffs weren't quite as daunting since with that big a board there are no holes so when the gust hits you're already going fast. In a way, it seems that it's easier to hold a big sail on a bigger board, with more leverage and all (funny, actually, since a 5.0 is not a big sail, but today it sure felt like it). As I went out, Glenn came in for his 4.2 Hucker, which he then used to good effect for the rest of the session.

So today, I probably would have been happier on a 4.2 or 4.8 Hucker, using something like a fast freeride board around 85-90 liters or so. But the 100 liter slalom did pretty well. It was a little too big to safely go for air, but I had a pretty damn nice session. One of the surf-ski paddlers who were out in force to surf the swells (which got to well over 4 feet; the paddlers kept talking about 6 feet plus, but given their lower vantage point I'm not surprised by that) came up to me afterwards and told me that he used to sail (even has some 15 year-old gear in the garage) but had had no idea you could go that fast on a windsurfer. In between the big swells, there was the occasional stretch of smooth water allowing me to hold the hammer down for short stretches - sure was fun. Wish I'd had the GPS.

Lots of debris in the water though - the flooding rivers are depositing a fair amount of floatsam in the bay. After seeing what all floated down the Skagit this past week from my office window, I imagine it's worth down south though.

Tomorrow and Sunday promise either very powered Formula sailing or even a chance for slalom sessions. And it's not even that cold - air temp today was 47 degrees, and I was able to sail with bare feet and hands. I'd call that a good day ;)

Winter storm season has started...

Started with 6.0 on my 24" Roberts slalom. Had a great time, then got blown off the water. Switched to 5.0 and my 20.5" Roberts slalom. Had a great time, then got blown off the water. Watched the liquid smoke for a while, then went home to get some work done. Nice day ;)

We get quite a few storms blowing through here fall through spring. This one was a notch up from the normal fare, but I've been thinking about getting something besides my small slalom board for when it's blowing smoke. It's not so much pure size (it's at most 75 liters, I guess), as it's the on-off sensation. If you're going, you're going so fast you're almost losing bladder control. And if you're not going, you're swimming. Given the big wind shadow on the inside when it gets a bit Easterly, and the very rough terrain out in the channel, this is not quite the right stick (it works great in powered Gorge conditions, though, where you have nice orderly swell).