After our first large north swell early last week, things quieted down to mellower conditions for the last several days. Thursday we saw light onshore wind for a good portion of the day. 5.7 was what I needed but I foolishly had rigged the 5.3. Wind came up nicely around 2.30 though for much more powered sailing. Surf was predominantly wind swell.
Friday we saw a return of stronger winds and continued sunny, blue skies and backside-riding wind swell. Nice 5.0 conditions for me. Nothing epic, but a beautiful day to be out on the water.
Saturday brought lots of clouds, showers and squalls to Maui’s north shore for much of the day. There was a nice break in the clouds and squalls in the early afternoon when the sun came out and the wind settled in comparatively. This brought scores of people to the break at Uppers to play in the surf – a slight improvement in surf from previous days. Sadly, we timed our session to start at the end of that sunny window of opportunity and ended up getting the squally conditions that finished off the day.
Pulling out the crystal ball, it looks like we should continue to get wet trade winds today. The trades are forecast to drop off a notch or two Monday and Tuesday then pick up to stronger levels again on Wednesday for the rest of the week. As for north shore surf, another small north northwest swell will begin to increase Wednesday, then hold at moderate levels Thursday and Friday. Overall, my impression with October so far this year is that we’re getting higher than normal number of windy days and lower than normal wave days.
