The Peconic Puffin

Now in the fourth month of the warmest winter ever (aka a chilly Spring) we headed north to South Jamesport to sail the easterly.  Normally we'd be at the Bowl, but the forecasted wind strength was prohibitive.   The word was that South Jamesport would be 4.7.

Arrived at SJ to find Pav on a 4.7 and big board, modestly planing.   Scott and the Wolf hadn't brought anything larger than 4.7, so they were sitting and waiting.   Artie and I decided to go for the gusto and rig 5.4ish.

That didn't work.

Well it worked for ten seconds, then the wind came up bigly.   Came back to shore to rig 4.7, but Scott was howling louder than the wind.  "It's 4.2!"   Surely he was wrong…I wasn't THAT overpowered on the 5.4.    Walked down to the beach to remonstrate when a gust blew me backwards.  Okay it's 4.2.

Once we all sorted it out and launched 4.2 there were two things we all noticed.  First:  We could have been on 3.7's.   Second:  Nice ramps out there!   George was throwing shuv-its, Scott was doing his thing, the Wolf was getting some, and I was doing okay (jumping is not my strong suit) when I watched Artie get some air.  I'd never sailed behind him in big chop before.  He makes it look easy…not a lot of work, just a POP and up he goes.   Let me try that…

And I got a foot more air than normal.   Let me try that again…

Two feet more than normal.  I'm going to have to see if this works in lighter wind or smaller chop, but yesterday the smaller effort in front of the ramp trick was a winner.   

The sand was blasting on the beach.   At one point the Wolf was downwind on the beach about 30 feet away tending his rig when SOMEONE (not me) picked up a dead fish and threw it in the air.   Happily it dropped before hitting his wolfliness.

A day later and I'm still sore.  Great sesh!