Gotta love these guys...

As if a fully powered slalom session for lunch wasn't enough to put a big smile on my face, I was treated to a spectacular visit by a very playful pod of Harbor Porpoises (see image for what these little guys look like; photo by Erik Christensen via Wikimedia Commons). It's not rare to see porpoises in Puget Sound and Bellingham Bay. Usually, you spot one or two, sometimes a whole pod - but they usually go by in the distance. Today, as I kept going back and forth on the same 1/4 mile reach (trying to maximize my jibes - gotta practice when you get the chance...), however, a pod of six or seven of them were just hanging out playing in the same spot for almost twenty minutes. They'd go upwind, then turn around and surf the swell downwind, and once in a while they'd breach, usually when I got close.

I'm not one to anthropomorphize animals, but you can't tell me that these guys weren't out there having fun. They were playing, clearly enjoying the sheer thrill of velocity - and the similarity between that and what I was doing was pretty striking. I guess we water people all have a bit of marine mammal in us...

Rites of spring

The first flowers are poking their heads up; some trees are starting to bloom, and slowly but surely, temperatures are creeping upward here in Bellingham. The skiing on Baker is still great (the base on Pan Dome is 273 inches - which is considered a normal amount up there for this time of year...), and there still are powder days to be had - but it's becoming clear that spring is on its way, and daylight savings time only adds to the manic energy that takes over this place when the light returns with a vengeance and people start shedding layers.

Today, however, marked that very special rite of spring - the first session without a hood (or gloves for that matter). It was an honest 50 degrees out. Yes, feet are still kind of chilly (water temps are around 45-46F all winter long, not much colder than in the summer - unless there's a bunch of melt-water coming down the rivers...) - but all very doable. Makes a difference, too, in how you approach your sailing - when you're not wearing gloves and can get a real grip on the boom, and when you don't feel sort of isolated/muffled under a hood, you tend to sail more aggressively.

This tends to be a good time of year for sailing up here; lots of fronts moving through, not a lot of eel grass to worry about yet. A couple months of this should get me ready for Gorge racing season - can't wait!

On life-affirming stupidity

I don't have any small b&j gear. I just don't get to sail it enough to make the investment. There's only one day or so every winter where I'll be out there on my small slalom board and 6.1, picking my way through the somewhat chaotic terrain on Bellingham Bay, and wishing I had a 4.2 Hucker and a jump board. For this winter, yesterday was that day.

The wind chart (courtesy http://nwwind.net/ - big shout-out to Mike Sumpter for this amazing service to the PNW wind tribe) pretty much tells the story (the Locust sensor is most representative of what's actually happening on the bay). Since it was ebbing, the water was stacking up pretty nicely, too. One of these days, I want to get Dale out here on a day like that - would be fun to see what he would do with those incredible port tack ramps.

So it was a short session; sailing slalom gear in those conditions is a bit like taking a pair of downhill race skis through a mogul field. Not exactly fun, and you never really get to equilibrium. But it sure makes you feel alive. There's just something life-affirmingly stupid about this kind of thing - I still can't quite wipe that slightly crazed grin off my face...

Tuning up

It's May, and the first Gorge Cup of the season is only three weeks away; good thing conditions have been pretty good lately, with remarkably good southerlies. And yes, that really is a 9.1 - after five seasons with a 9.9/10.8 formula quiver, I've relented and added a smaller size. After all, Nationals are in San Francisco this year, and those guys race formula well into conditions that would have us switch to slalom in the Gorge.

Early on in today's session, it was pretty marginal for the small sail, but after having it for well over a month, I was really looking for an excuse to finally try it. Turns out, besides being a real pleasure to sail, it has remarkably good low end. I had observed Bruce using his very effectively in patchy conditions before, but I had just chalked that up to his efficient sailing style. Maybe I need to reexamine my bigger-is-better credo.

And just as I was starting to feel a little chilly in my short-sleeved suit, I spotted my friend Dale McKinnon in a small runabout. Dale's a pretty inspiring local fixture, having rowed the Inside Passage at close to age 60 (see here and here for some background - she's also quite a character). Her current project, however, is to coach a guy from the Seattle area in preparation for a swim across the English Channel (he got really close on his first attempt, which was also coached by Dale) - and here he was, doing laps in Bellingham Bay (water around 48F, air a little cooler) in his speedos. I somehow felt pretty toasty after seeing that...

Going to my happy place

Every windsurfer I know seems to have a favorite set of conditions, matched with a favorite set of gear, resulting in a favorite kid of session. It's that sort of Goldilocks state, where things are just right - not too this, not too that on any scale, just pure windsurfing goodness.

For me, that happy combo is slalom sailing when fully powered on my Exo 71, Sailworks 7.1, and Finworks 40, and it happens in that magical slot right around 25 knots - a little more if the water is flat, a little less if it's bumpy, but the gear has so much range that really anything between 20 and 30 knots or thereabouts results in bliss. Add some radiant sunshine, brilliant views of Mt. Baker, Canadian Cascades, and the Olympics to the Southwest, and some good wildlife viewing (witnessed a seal catching a small seabird for lunch - that was a first...). Mix in the fact that during spring, the weeds are still pretty subdued here while temperatures are nicely moderate - presto, I'm in my happy place. Life can be pretty sweet sometimes...

Rites of spring

First session of the season in short sleeves; always a big deal here in the Pacific Northwest. Amazing how much more agile one feels without all the extra neoprene. Made me downright adventurous - ended up doing tacking and jibing drills for well over an hour to shake off that rusty conservative winter mode. Tired now; time for a well-refrigerated barley beverage...