Cold Hatteras

Well the guys trip to Hatteras was cancelled. So we planned a cold Hatteras long weekend at the Launch Pad but that was cancelled too due to Covid. Likely OK, since the scheduled Friday to Tuesday 5 days stretch turned out to be the only 5 days in a row this year without even enough wind to foil.

But the wind prediction for Wednesday was solid. But we needed to leave for Collingwood at 10am. So I woke up at 7am had coffee and toast and was on the water at 8:30.

Ready for the earliest morning (and latest day) of the year session

The forecast from the night before was right!

 

8:15 am and windy!

Ready to launch

I walked the Freewave 116 out to the point and decided at 23 knots avg wind that I would use the 4.7 sail. I went back, pulled my hood up and walked the sail to the point. It was the perfect combo. I'm glad I remembered to make the foot straps bigger which worked nicely with the winter booties which I haven’t really used in 20 years since I got them.

With the water at 8c and the SW wind at 6c, this was very much a colder session than my historical 18c combined minimum temperature. But I had the advantage of having a 6/5/4mm hooded wetsuit, 1.5mm gloves and thick ankle high booties.

GPS track with two wipeouts and one nice planing jibe

My first 20 minutes were good with me slowly making upwind ground and planing most of the time. With the thick suit, I didn't wear my Garmin watch and instead had my cell phone with me as an extra safety precaution along with my SPOT GPS. I used Runtastic on my phone which worked nicely to record the session.

I got one good jibe in the flat water behind where I used to launch 4 years ago before we got the Launch Pad. And I had one nice walk off the front of the board into a face plant during my one duck jibe attempt. It was surprising how little water came into my wetsuit. By the time I'd had the long upwind run I was so tired I couldn't finish my jibe. So it was time to head back downwind which was fun.

Post session smile

Nice clearing skies after my session 

Morning sunshine

This was also the latest session I‘ve ever had in Canada. Last year‘s latest was Oct 26. And I think I'll get one or two more in November?