With a forecast of winds up to 40 knots from the west Bell Buoy was the obvious choice on Tuesday but the concept of sailing solo in 30kt +++ sub 8C temperatures and and a ¾ mast swell on an unfamiliar board seemed a little foolhardy so I decided to drive to Bakers.
There was a clean head high swell at Baker that looked like it was well over half mast a few hundred meters down the beach. The wind was very gusty and much more offshore than I have ever seen it before. I rigged a 4.5 and then the wind was gone. There was a wind line about 150 meters out but the inside looked like perfect SUP conditions.
I rigged a 5.3 and drifted around for about an hour and the wind slowly picked up a bit. The end result was a couple of OK waves and at least two icy swims. The bigger sets were standing up for about 30 to 40 meters then closing out, the smaller waves were a little more friendly but being closer to shore the wind was gustier and lighter.
I came in to pack up but Hamish arrived so I decided to stick around and see if the wind improved, it's fantastic to see another wavesailor on the north coast. By the time Hamish had rigged up the wind was blowing 20 to 30 kts and stayed that way for about 30 minutes. With the tide dropping there were some good waves close to the point that allowed a few turns but the bigger set waves were more like doing speed runs behind a sandbar. Bear away and make as much distance straight down the line before they closed out.
So it was a pretty typical winter sail, a lot crap and a little bit good but no gear damage at least. Had the wind been a little more westerly and the tide lower it might have been awesome
Monday would of went off at Bakers.I was keen Tuesday and was thinking on sailing over but would of been too hard to get back.
It would have been OK for some of Monday particularly when it was WNW though the wind peaks of 47 kts would have been interesting. It was very northwesterly for a lot of the day which might have been OK for jumping but not so great for waveriding.
Hopefully in Spring it will settle into the WNW pattern for a few days instead of just a few hours. (and it would be nice if the temperature was over 10C)
