Columbus Jeff's Eagle Ocean report

The Eagle Creek AWOS reported 21G27NNW and 10C. Let's see..., that's 50F and clearing. Darn, no more excuses, it's time to sail. At EO the lake was covered in white caps and the place was deserted. I was debating whether to launch solo or not when folks started showing up. There was Brian, who is still mastering waterstarts, Eric the kite boarder who was desperate to find a launch/landing clear of trees, and Brymart. WWW also showed up, but declared he was just out for a run as it was too cold to sail.

Brian measured 6G30+ and we rigged 5.2-5.5's on semi-floater boards. As Bryan said, anything you rig will be wrong 50% of the time so you may as well rig something that will plane more than schlog and float you through the lulls. Brian made a single reach out, fell in, and called it a day when he finally struggled back to shore down by Rick's. It just wasn't a day for practicing waterstarts. No one measured the water temp, but it was tolerable in a drysuit, dryboots, hood, and mittens.

Bryan and I got in maybe 3 sessions, coming in to warm the hands and toes. It was a very good wind for EO, puffy, but not psycho, and eventually filled in nicely. I had the 5.5 as flat as it would go and should have rigged down, but I was too stubborn (lazy?). It only took three or four tail walks to remembered how to sheet out without removing mast foot pressure.

After working out the cobwebs I got semi comfortable in the conditions and started to work on sailing as opposed to surviving. Outbound reaches were with the chop making it smooth and fast. Inbound was pretty rough with some impressive ramps for EO. I managed a few hops and saw Bryan attempt what looked like a forward loop. As for jibing, well let's just say that the 5.5 was just too overpowered for jibing. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

We ended the day while it was still early and blowing strong. A nice start to the season.

LLCJ

ps Where was everyone else? I remember when a day like this would have filled the launch area until either the wind died or it got dark.