If the forecast holds out I'll make a road trip north for a sail with some real people in real conditions.
Hopefully the southern w............s don't follow me up I'm so over them going on and on and on.................... about the awesome "wave sailing" on the 6" swell at Goats

You where saying 6 Inches just doesn't satisfy you anymore.
Then we talked about waves

You will be welcomed Houston! As for your cronies...your call.

Conditions look 'smoking' at this stage so cross those pinkies, load the van and let's look forward to a BLAST on Sinday.

What time of day are you planning to sail?

As soon as its up, pretty much. N - NW means not tide affected and then when the W kicks in the tide will be out anyway.

I think that consensus is to hit BB at around 9.30.

Very enthusiastic!

As soon as its up, pretty much. N - NW means not tide affected and then when the W kicks in the tide will be out anyway.

I think that consensus is to hit BB at around 9.30.

Very enthusiastic!

It's hard to believe it is going to be so windy out here tomorrow. Is beautiful warm, sunny and very still at the moment. but we will be there as soon as the wind arrives and the tides a bit out.

Since 6" doesnt satisfy you anymore Houston I've got 4feet waiting for you at the superior end of the state.

that's the best looking birch i have seen up north

Here's some action from this afternoon's session. The boss let me run his camera while he was out, Nelly sure was jealous.

Always a pleasure to sail with you guys not sure what takes us all up to the next level......................... could be several reasons..............Bell Buoy is:
Always windy
Always challenging
Always nice friendly people
Always sunny
The average IQ on the water is much higher.
The jumps are higher
The loops are bigger
The adrenaline is always pumping
Gill always looks after me (pity Al gets in the way)
The list goes on an on an on an on an on..........

How was your sail down south guys and gals it should have been awesome as most of the power lines are down.............. maybe you had no power for your latte machine so by the time you boiled the billy the wind was gone

The westerly front came through with a bang at 1:30pm. It went from 10 knots to 40 knots in 15 minutes.
Most sailors were on 3.7 sails and overpowered. The peak reading was 44 knots but the gusts stayed over 40 for a couple of hours.
The first two photo hint at the extreme weather.
















g/photos/windsurfing/8093919.jpg

What a day!

Nuclear wind, 8 on the water, and photographers taking shots like these!

I think I could survive another two weeks without wind after a day like that...okay, 10 days...maybe.

It was fabulous to spend the day with you all!!! Thanks.

(sorry for piking early Ant, my legs stopped working)

Great photos, and top notch action.
Well done!!

I know you guys don't want to hear this but it was inevitable the wind would drop and the swell clean up. When you got out of the water the wind peaked off the show but then dropped out so I was comfortable of the 3.7m. And just to get the logic right so you know I'm not bull****ting, the swell was slowly building, as the swell gets bigger the distance between waves is greater, when the wind drops the waves clean up.
If would have been perfect at midnight.

Geoff hope you didn't do too much damage to those cruciates

Full marks go to Alex whose only been on the water 12 times (ever) but still came out with a 4.5m (most of us overpowered with 3.7) without a harness!!!!!! cos he's never used one. Gutsy effort if you keep that up you'll be looping before Greenie

I know its a long way away, but I just looked at the north coast forecast for the week. I like the new, it windy on Sunday theme, nothing to miss out on during the week and so easy to spend Monday drawing/working when you have had such a fun sail and your muscles are no good for anything else.

Ant - We saw that the observations between 4.30 and 6.00 went to a gentle 28 - 30 knots and we thought that you may have had the staying power to be out there, amongst it in dream-conditions - you lucky, lucky...

Cruciates are fine this morning - thanks - just a little bit of a wake-up for them yesterday - the groin is a different story though - Physio on Wednesday, rest (hmmmmm...), ice packs (are you SERIOUS!), perhaps a good rub down (Mmmmmmm...).

I was also impressed that Chris managed to hold down both too much board AND too much sail for a couple of hours, but he did make noises about shopping for a 3.?. And Gil - I would have sworn she was wearing ballast - a 12 kg lead vest perhaps - she seemed to be able to stay on the water, as well as up the right way. That SWAT looked like it was working nicely.

Ahhh - nothing but dreams now until the next 'OH MY GOD this is cool' - session.

(...and a few coaching session with Alex to get his Front Loops nailed for the next instalment)

Select to expand quote

houston said..

I know you guys don't want to hear this but it was inevitable the wind would drop and the swell clean up. When you got out of the water the wind peaked off the show but then dropped out so I was comfortable of the 3.7m. And just to get the logic right so you know I'm not bull****ting, the swell was slowly building, as the swell gets bigger the distance between waves is greater, when the wind drops the waves clean up.
If would have been perfect at midnight.

Geoff hope you didn't do too much damage to those cruciates

Full marks go to Alex whose only been on the water 12 times (ever) but still came out with a 4.5m (most of us overpowered with 3.7) without a harness!!!!!! cos he's never used one. Gutsy effort if you keep that up you'll be looping before Greenie

And before houston

You're all wearing steamers I thought it was meant to be summer!

Was hoping to be in board shorts at bell buoy next weekend!

Looks st.. house in photos 2inches of chop and 40 knots

Welcome back e-Pearso...following shortly 'in body' it seems.

Yes. we were all in steamers, but we all had our old, thin, full-of-holes steamers on...and we were cooking!

You should probably concentrate on getting Gale-ready and worrying a little less about the fashion statement that you are going to make, if yesterday was anything to go by.