FOUR/FIVE/SIX
Thursday, April 06, 2006 10:23 AM
At this time, JUDAHS.....PRIEST.....wotta day! You know something is up when you check the wind at 8 a.m. and it's already blowing 21, which is more than was predicted by the terribly important and hghly accurate NAM computer models for the PM max. So did it drop??? Unh-uh. At 11:30 it was blowing 28 average at Seal and THERE WAS NO ONE OUT. Oh there were a couple of sailors whimpering on the beach and derigging in a funk but no one was out.
So the Seal Beach hard core regulars trickle in and hem and haw and start rigging 4.7 to 5.2, depending on body weight and yarble size. By 12:45 half of them are back rigging smaller...and IT'S STILL TOO BIG!
We are talking massive winds out of the WSW, call it 26 or 27 average with a solid 19 knot base and gusts into or past the mid 30s. At the same time overhead, muddy swells are charging in from the SW (which is arguably good...it means wind leaks past the wave face so you can jibe with POWER....HAH HAH HA).
I'm on my 7'11" Nelson, a 10" wave fin and a 5.2, so you could say I'm one of those rigged by yarble size (although actually, the 5.2 was the smallest sail I had packed). Everything is too big. When I turn off the wind to try to jibe I get a tremendous burst of acceleration, repeatedly finishing the outside "jibe" rocketing in an uncontrolled direction straight downwind with both feet on the windward rail in a vain attempt to turn the board into the wind.
Soooo finally I come in and trot the gear back up to the rigging area where I switch down to a 9.0 Caserio wave fin and downhaul and outhaul until I am sporting a massive 2" of draft. This helps quite a bit and now I can at least jibe, mostly, sort of, sometimes, and also hit huge air when confronted by an overhead 100 foot wide swell rocketing in from points south. These are outrageous wave sailing conditions but I'm so powered I can't really luxuriate in the waves as much as I'd like, not to mention the fact that I'm a sh*tty wave sailor.
Even after I reluctantly drag my gear back in and head off to an uncancellable meeting it continues to blow way over 20 until way past dark and I end the day with just one question:
Can I get a do-over?
The Jack
