[Paddlewise] You know it's windy when..

You know it's windy when:

1. The whistle on your pfd whistles, without you putting it in your
mouth.
2. When surfing a wave you do a low brace and the wind driven splash
comes over your shoulder and passes you.
3. You purse your lips and turn your head sideways to make whistling
sounds - without breathing.

The forecast for today was for temperatures in the 50s with a northwest
wind of 20 to 35 miles per hour.

Seems like a nice day to paddle.  

We met at a Mike C's house on the Annisquam river in Gloucester MA and
headed out to Wingaershaek beach to see what the wind/waves were doing
as they hit the sandbars.

We chose this location because a NW wind would force you onto shore. 
I'm not a fan of padding with a brisk offshore wind.  

We ended up staying in the mouth of the river taking multiple runs from
the end of the sand bar back to into the river.  High points would be
burying the nose of my 21'6" boat up to the footwells.  Having my
knees/hips under water when I slowed drastically on a wave and it
flooded the cockpit of my sit on top.

We were playing with 4+ foot sea swell with wind driven waves coming at
a 45 degree angle to the larger swells.  We had an outbound tide, which
was flowing almost directly into the oncoming wind, which made for nice
stacking up of waves.  Mike C had his GPS - he saw speeds up to 9 knots
- with a 3 knot opposing current.

This was the first time I wished I had a 9" surfing rudder instead of
the 7" rudder currently on my boat.  I broached a few times, and had to
make a few quick braces to avoid going for a swim.  Mike got to try his
rough water remount, after dumping mid channel.  Bill wasn't as bold, on
his first run he was tentative about turning around and ended up in some
6 to 7 foot steep waves. He ended up paddling upwind, across the
channel, with both feet in the water, straddling the hull for extra
stability.  After the first run he spent time closer to shore, and
somewhat sheltered by the large rocks on Wingaeshaek beach.

All in all another fabulous day.  I've had a lot of good days this
season....

Kirk

-- 
  Kirk Olsen
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