Where We Sailed Today

bert · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 644

A surprise gift from the wind Gods today, mid November..15-18 on the inside and 25-28 in the channel. 4.7/100L RRD worked good at 12:30 pm and sailed for 40 minutes until the rt knee started to give out. Just me and a kiter on the water..

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1254

So Bert, What is the more detailed update on the knee treatments" I think you chose to go non-surgical. Is that correct? Does it seem to be working? Or not so much? I have no personal knowledge, just wanting to know for future concerns.

What I think were torn rotator cuffs that I had seemed to have somewhat mended with occasional targeted exercise and windsurfing with the avoidance of going out on gustier days. Windsurfing on the smoother days seemed to help the shoulders. Gusty days were bad. Ice required to ease the pain.

I do not have knee problems, but who knows what comes next....

bert · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 644

windward1,

I opted for stem cell treatment on both knees last September instead of surgery and while I believed it has helped, there is no real scientific proof that cartilage regrows after cell injection. As a result, my sailing sessions these days are shorter and more placid and my yearly total is half of what it was in the past..and I'm fine with that because slowing down is part of the aging process

bert

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 4885 Location: East Bay

N wind today.
Checked PI, looking 5.5 up and down and drove on to Berkeley.
Shoulda rigged 5.0.
But greed took over and 5.7 got rigged.
Low crawl E to gusts of maybe 22 that drew me up to Seabreeze with one final down winder to Lordship and several runs back to switch to WS.
Same 5.7, now Isonic 111, and still too much. Sailed down to Lordship in 4 runs, took 5 to get back to 3rd dock.
Too little in the lulls of 3, too much in the gusts of 22.
Oh well.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1254

Hi Bert,

Understood. I have 100 sessions this year versus 120 last year. Not too likely to get too many more in this year.

However, I am happy and surprised that my shoulders are doing better. Still had to take them into account this past summer when evaluating how long a trek I could do in my Coasting Quest.

May we all go as long as we can and squeeze as much fun out of it as time allows.

W1

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1254

Natural Bridges was so sweet today. Measured low to mid teens at the overlook so headed in to the park. Rigged my Angulo SailSUP with an Ezzy Cheetah 7.0. Wind appeared to have died. Took the board to the beach. Maybe 3 knots of wind. Almost turned around to give it up. Looked out and was trying to discern if there was anything to work with outside. A sail boat had a heel to it, not much, but a heel. Went back up for the sail. Launched after a set had come in and made it out without incident.
Surprise, surprise! The wind was coming up and mid teens were to be had on the outside. Very good to catch the 14 second WNW swell about a quarter mile out and ride it in to about 75 yards off of the beach. About 8 surfers at sidewalks with always more coming out, but some going in. I had plenty of room to ride while staying outside of them, jibing to go back out off of the rocks between the Mobile home Beach and Natural Bridges Beach.
The swell was near perfect with the long period and the tide bottomed out. Sets were 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 waves. No competing swell except for two very minor south swells of less than two feet. I caught a lot of swell for the long ride and many were head high or over as we sped towards and got closer to shore.
Sure am glad I did not give up on it and went out. In these conditions the SailSUP shines.

dvCali · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 1203

There we were ,starting at 12:30 with powered up 5.8 slalom/4.8 B&J an then foils until dark. Foils out with sails from 4.0 to 7.0, all doing fine. Another sign of what revolution Foil is. Fun December day!!!!

dvCali · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 1203

Happy new year! Three windsurfers/foilers at the beach, two people out. Very very weak but I foiled a tiny bit with 5.4. I should have been on 6.5 ... next time! Very Happy

SwellRipper · Joined: 21 Apr 2009 Posts: 192 Location: Channel Marker 11

Happy 2020 to windward1 and everyone else on the forum.

A question for windward1- what were you using to track your historic windsurf conquest of the entire Santa Cruz coast, a standalone GPS or a smartwatch?

Anyone else GPS tracking their sailing? What do you use?

Thanks.

Also, heads up to everyone, this coming weekend has wind potential.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1254

Well Thank you SwellRipper. And Happy New Year to you and everyone else as well.

I was using a Garmin Forerunner 310XT watch. Handy as it is on your wrist and can be seen while sailing. Later, at home, it uploads wirelessly to your computer and free Garmin Express software creates a page of information with statistics and an overlay on Google Earth of your session.

I need to get another one as I lost this last one two days ago when I got rolled by a good wave set while landing after a session off of Natural Bridges. One might think that a watch would stay on in that type of event, but I have lost two that way. One needs to think twice before going out with one in medium to heavy surf conditions.

Last Garmin 310XT I purchased was online and not new as I think they are no longer made. I will check what else is available as well, but the last search did not find anything as simple and convenient. We will see what this time turns up.