Pam Rocks (2016 Jan 6) - Cates Bay, Bowen Island

[AdrienGrelon]

EC looking like the strong outflow probably won't last past noon tomorrow...

[C36]

Saturday might have enough wind, I'm into it, anyone else?

Not sure what the day has in store, will post in the morning if I am headed for the water.

[Michael]

Saturday might have enough wind, I'm into it, anyone else?

Not sure what the day has in store, will post in the morning if I am headed for the water.

I'm without a car now so I can't go.

[C36]

Play to listen.

Edit/
DB: Struggling to find the Furry Creek parking map I mentioned searching using my phone. Hope you were able to find it.

[ShonanDB]

Thanks. I'm going to check out Furry Creek this morning as it looks like a repeat of yesterday. Hopefully it warms up a few degrees but will post an OSR when I get there and rig up.
DB

[ShonanDB]

Drove up to Furry Creek this morning to take a look and scouted out Oliver's Landing and the small parking area near the Golf Course. Walked along the waterfront path at Oliver's Landing from North to South and found a decent place to launch from at the Southern part of the complex but it is a fair bit of a walk from the parking lot. The wind pretty much came right in and it would be sailable/kiteable from the rocky point there. It looked to be part of the complex so I drove down the highway a bit and stopped at the parking area with a hole cut in the fence overlooking the golf course's green at the water. It was less than a 5 min walk down to the water but there was more beach exposed and a few places to consider launching from. There was a definite wind line about 20 metres from the beach but I decided to give it a go and took the 110L and rigged my 5.3 and headed out. Was well powered for the first hour and then the sun came over the ridge and the wind cranked up a few notches. Was thinking about rigging down to the 4.7 but wasn't sure how long it would last so just kept sailing overpowered and it wasn't too bad as I had rigged with lots of downhaul. From the middle to the far side it was about 5 to 10 knots windier and more gusts coming through than on the close side.
The rollers were fairly close together and were knee to thigh high with the occasional steep/breaking face which favoured starboard jumping but the odd peak would set up to hit a couple port side as well. The wind and waves were building when I left but looking at the sensor data, it backed off by 1:30. Started off cold on the hands but once I was out there it was fine and then when the sun came over the ridge it was quite warm. The tide was dropping throughout my session but I found that I could keep my place and even headed upwind to sail off the condo complex I mentioned before. Had a solid 2 hr session and will definitely go back. Great first session in 2016! On the drive home, it looked windy most of the way down to Bowen Island but the far side of the Sound looked windier. A downwinder from Furry Creek to Porteau Cove looks doable as I stopped there to have a look on the way back and the wind was solid all the way back up towards Furry Creek.
I took a bunch of pics and video and will post when I have the chance.
Darrell

[Mike]

Nice score Darrel! That may have been the first "local" Vancouver area session for everyone? Plus it's the first time I've heard of someone doing the winter Howe Sound and saying you'd do it again.

[ShonanDB]

Thanks Mike. I should rephrase that to "I would definitely sail here again if there is no wind anywhere else."

Darrell

Video from the parking area https://vimeo.com/151353804

[ShonanDB]

I put together a short video from the GoPro footage I took at Furry Creek on Jan 10th. Nothing special but you can get an idea about the conditions, wind line, launch, etc.

https://vimeo.com/151617044

DB

[Michael]

Thanks Darrell, looks nice out there. Footage looks good too, were you filming 1080 30fps?