Well the mistral has been blowing for a few days now. The wind was supposed to be down to 20 knots. With sunny skies, the predicted 7c air temperature didn't even scare me off.
I arrived at Le Jai, and there was not a soul there. I rigged up the 5.4, held it up in the wind, and then quickly took it apart and rigged the 4.7. The wind was now 20 gusting to 25.
 |
| Wind report during my session, 29 gusting to 38 knots! |
Getting out through the weeds in the onshore winds was tough. (There was even a tractor down the beach piling the black stringy stuff into a dump truck.).
The water was a chilly 10c, but the air was up to 8c for a combined 18c, which has generally been my lower combined temperature limit.
There were also fishing nets strung out perpendicular to shore, so on my first few runs, I had to chop hop over them.
Once upwind I could do longer runs, but I did want to keep an eye on the car. In October, there was a rash of break ins and car thefts at this beach.
Cold, seaweed, fishing nets, break-ins, on a normal work day. Maybe that's why I was the only one out?
My fingers and feet got cold, but just slightly numbing, not the pins and needles cold I remember. My 5/4 wetsuit didn't even get soaked inside up top; just from my waist down.
 |
| Pretty smooth GPS gybe tracks. 40km/h top speed! |
The wind had picked up to 29 knots average with gusts to 38. I was in survival sailing mode and didn't really try any tricks, just a few jumps. No video of this session, just a GPS track. A fair number of nice smooth gybes at each end. I hit 40 km/h at one point.
30 minutes later I was pretty tired and had to quit and go pick up kids from school. But it was still a worthwhile session. How long is a typical fall/winter windsurfing session?
Next time I'll be wearing gloves and a neoprene toque but I'm not planning on putting the gear away quite yet...
Here's a shot of the statue near Le Jai France.
 |
| Definitely a windsurfing place! |
No comments:
Post a Comment