Well what had looked to be a good week of windsurfing has followed this phrase titling one of my previous posts "The OBX is like a Box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get". Each day this week has fooled the forecasters the only day they got right was Monday when they forecasted light winds. Tuesday we were supposed to get a good SW flow topping out @ 20 it actually topped out at 12. The following day we were supposed to get NE 20 to 25 for a good portion of the day, E @ 12 would have been the accurate call. Wednesday we were expecting a good NE shifting to east and diminishing, then it was revised to ESE and building throughout the day to upper teens. Never materialized, only time it got over 15 was just before and during the couple of late day rain squalls. Here we are, it's Thursday and the forecasted upper teens wind has not materialized until right now during a thunderstorm that is going on as I type. I'm jonesing for some planning wind but I don't want to risk electrocution to do so. The real salt in the wound is it has been @ 20 the last couple days back home, What can you do?
The storm is upon us
That is not to say I haven't gotten out each day. I look forward to this vacation because I get to windsurf all I want and if there is enough breeze to move the board then I will sail. After my Kona Surf experiment I took it back and swapped it for the more beginner friendly Exocet Medium Cruiser. I rode that for an hour or so on Tuesday. That board makes for a really good first board and I believe with the right sized sail and a long fin it would end up being fun for recreational formula sailing.
On Wednesday I sailed my biggest gear again, there were just enough sustained gusts that you could plane every now and then. I tried to focus on sail trim to get the most power out of the available wind. Hopefully I learned something that will allow me to be more efficient in higher winds. I also practiced swimming my gear into waterstart position in the channel.
The bad thing is I messed up my wrist and ankle doing a light wind jibe in a foot of water. A gust backwinded the sail an knocked me off the board. I guess since the sail had power the additional force tweaked my ankle and bent my hand backward toward my forearm at an angle. The ankle is fine but the wrist still hurts, to top it off the strength is limited. I'm guessing it's just a mild sprain. It's definately not going to keep me off the water, if I can catch a break with the wind.
As far as non windsurfing activities I went surf fishing on Monday morning the weather was perfect. There was no wind which made the water glassy but the surf was awesome with chest high waves and some were even bigger in the sets. Kind of made me want to try surfing again. Andy apparently was out further south somewhere near the thunderstorm in the photos.
Sunrise on the OBX
Nice chest to head high sets and not a breath of wind
Thunderstorm headed offshore
I went fishing again Wednesday morning caught couple Taylor blues and a really weird fish it was a little over 2 feet long, really thin and 2 inches from top to bottom. It was a beautiful silver iridescent color it basically looked like a ribbon with teeth. Here is a cell photo, if you know what it is leave a comment.
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