Friday 7/4/03 - Eagle Ocean (Jibe Marker Jill's report)
Sail size: 6.5-8.5, wind 10-25 mph, air temp 90

The wind gods delivered on the Fourth of July this year. It wasn't nukin' by any means, but it was warm and breezy enough for some solid planing with big gear, and the wind built as storms approached late in the day.

I got to Eagle Ocean around 1 p.m. Rev Mike, Jethro Matt, and Indy Car Mike were there. Mike and Matt were taking turns on Chef's new Formula Board. (Poor Chef is still recuperating from shoulder surgery, and hasn't had a chance to try is own board yet... it must be torture!). But Matt was quite impressed with it! Soon more sailors arrived, including Southern Brian, and Sumner, who was teaching his stepson to windsurf. The wind was up and down, but I was getting plenty of planing runs on my 6.5. World Wide Wayne showed up, and miraculously didn't kill the wind. And then Dr. Evil appeared on the scene, along with his kids Jordan ("Mini Me") and Betsy. We rigged up a 4.0 on Dr. Evil's GO board, and Jordan and Betsy tried their hand a windsurfing while Coach Dr. Evil paddled alongside in his kayak. They both did great and got up and sailing, although there were plenty of splashes too. Nonetheless, it's nice to have some Kid Windsurfers on Eagle Ocean.

The wind kept building, and reached a pretty solid 15-25 that made for some great sailing. Techno Matt showed up and had some runs on the Cheformula board. Soon some dark clouds appeared on the horizon, though, and everybody started making their way toward shore. Dr. Evil and Jordan were quite aways downwind, and I went down to check on 'em. The wind got really psycho, and I had a heck of a time trying to get back upwind (the Eagle Airpark wind reading at that point was variable at 7 gusting to 25). Jordan was having equal troubles padding the kayak in the psycho wind, so mighty Dr. Evil paddled the kayak and towed Jordan and the Go board back to the launch. The storm passed just north of us, but another one was right behind it and headed right towards us, and everyone got their gear packed up just as the lightning got too close for comfort and the rain started to splat down.

All in all, a pretty good day!

- Jibe Marker Jill