Light winds last week were supposed to last through Wednesday so of course Wednesday cranked.
Looked 5.0 – 5.3 when I checked it out. A bit of a north swell running thanks to Guillermo so I wanted to make sure I had the power to get upwind to the waves so I chose 5.3. At least a half a meter too big!
Some fun waves straight out from the Kanaha beginners area – waist to shoulder high. Bigger sets upwind at Camp One, but they weren’t wrapping as well and it was more crowded so I chose to have the smaller, better direction stuff all to myself.
Before too long I couldn’t take the 5.3 anymore so went in for a quick re-rig to 4.7 and headed back out. Same break straight out at Uppers, a little more reasonable under control now, but kept thinking that 4.5 would be better. Only lasted another half hour or so before needing to go in for a lunch break.
Rigged the 4.5 after a lunch and water break. The 4.5 was even over powered a lot of the time. By this time, the break straight out at Uppers was getting less consistent so I powered up to Camp One. Still lots of eager beavers going gonzo there. Still not wrapping around as well as it was further downwind, but definitely bigger and a bit cleaner – shoulder to head high here.
Turned out to be an unexpected treat. Logged three sessions that day and over three hours of overpowered sailing so I was a bit tired on Thursday. With strong, gusty conditions prevailing on Thursday and no fuel left in the tank from the previous day I blew off sailing on Thursday. Reports I’ve heard are that it was extremely gusty.
Friday brought a little mellower conditions. Got down for a mid-afternoon session to find that the wind had dropped down from super windy down to more reasonable 5.3-ish conditions and a bit onshore. Got a few reaches on the 5.3 and was jibing on the outside and heard a loud POP! and felt and heard my sail crumple a bit. Thought I had maybe broken a mast so, I limped slogged back to the beach where I found that my downhaul pulley had broken, thereby releasing all the downhaul on my sail. Rigged up the 5.0 and headed right back out for a nicely powered late afternoon session.
Yesterday brought another 5.0 session. Kind of an interesting little bump in the wave department, strange in that despite being windy both outside the break and inside the break, the actual break was completely glassing off. Made for some fun little rides on perfectly smooth glass.
Looks like trade winds should stick around through the coming week. Tropical storm Hilda should pass to our south some time this week, but since she’s going south of us, this shouldn’t interrupt the trade wind flow.
