by ShonanDB » Sun Jan 14, 2018 6:46 pm
Took a chance on the Outflow forecast and headed up to Furry Creek after checking the actuals this morning. 32 gusting to 40 at Pam Rocks and 8 degrees with sun in the forecast. Arrived about 7:45 and it was cranking. Did a walk around to check the tide and didn't see any logs rolling around at today's high slack tide and a fair bit of rock beach exposed at a few difference places. Noticed a big wind shadow the first 50 metres or so but gusts would rip through and touch down a few times a minute. I could see liquid smoke on the water from time to time so rigged my 3.7 and took out the 101L JP FSW for some extra floatation.
Weird water state today - maybe due to the NE instead of NNE direction that I have had most of the times in the past. The waves were seeming to wrap in towards the beach so I was sailing directly into them on the way out for the first 100 metres or so and then the rollers were coming through normally on the outside. Hard to keep the board on the water in the gusts but was better once out in the rollers. Stayed within a few 100 metres from shore as it gets windier the farther you go across. Saw a few rollers that were head high out there today and they had some distance between them so gybing on the outside was fun especially if timed with a 30 knot lull. Found that the wind would seem to shift to side offshore just when I came back into the wind shadow area so making it back to the beach was challenging. However, as the waves were wrapping in there, I could ride them even if the wind lulled up. It was a little frustrating at first but was fun once I got used to it.
Sailed until 11ish and decided to call it a day as my hands were starting to get tired. Used my open mitt gloves for the first hour and then took them off for the second hour as it didn't seem as cold. Nothing fancy today as I was alone out there and it felt like survival sailing 80% of the time. Was toasty warm in my 6-5-4 Excel suit and the water didn't seem as cold as I thought it would be. Finished off the last 30 minutes of the session in the sun. Nice first session of the 2018 season for me.