Light winds

Light wind the last few days on the north shore - averaging in the upper teens. Kihei has been blowing much stronger. A friend sailed well powered 4.7 at Maui Sunset yesterday. Winds will probably stay in this pattern for another couple of days then trend even lighter.

Weekend Wind Report

Saturday saw good 4.5 conditions after a light mid-day lull. Sailed up to Uppers and Camp One to play in the small surf. Good fun.

Today saw lighter winds. The forecasters are finally getting it right. Winds were in the upper teens, dabbling with the very low 20s occasionally. Sailed mostly marginally powered to underpowered on the 5.0 today.

Raging Gorge Winds Visit Maui

As I said yesterday, what do those forecasters know? Forecast was for 10 - 15. Nowhere even close! The winds raged at Kanaha today. Initially it looked pretty moderate - I went out on my 5.0 in the early afternoon. After about 15 minutes I was pretty OPed. I think, "Ok time for the 4.5." I go out on the 4.5. Way overpowered. One reach out and back. I think, "Ok time for the 4.0." I go out on the 4.0. Way overpowered. One reach out and back. I think, "Ok time for the 3.5." I go out on the 3.5. Way powered to slightly overpowered at times. 3.2 would have worked fine for me if I had one. The 3.5 was manageable, not a lot of fun, but manageable. Not many people were out. I think a lot of people just got sick of rerigging. I suppose the tourists got sick of running back to the shop for smaller gear.

The celebrity spotting of the day was Josh Stone ripping it up at Kanaha throwing flat-water loops all over the place, making it look easy. I think I overheard him say he was on a 4.7. This was when I was feeling OPed on my 4.5. I won't even bother mentioning what the forecast for tomorrow is.

Variety

We've seen quite a variety of conditions here on Maui this week, from nice powered 4.5 and head high waves to raging 4.0, light, mellow 5.8 cruising and hardly any wind on Sunday. Today was a pretty mellow 5.0. Took out the big board and cruised around and worked on some new tricks. Wind picked up enough to cruise up to Uppers where there was still some waist-high waves breaking. Kind of blown out and cross choppy but good fun nevertheless. Late in the afternoon it got pretty crowded. Must have been 20 or more sailors vying for one wave in a small 20 yard section at Uppers. Pretty dicey sometimes. Took a screaming reach downwind and got my smaller board and played around a bit more, but my tank was empty. Winds are supposed to lighten up the next few days as the high pressure is forecast to move further away. But then again, what do those forecasters know?

Forecasters - what do they know

Yesterday the NWS Maui zone forecast was predicting 10 - 15 and the marine forecast was forecasting 15. They were right for about a half hour window. It blew a solid 4.5 to 5.0 at Kanaha and with a nice shoulder to head high swell rolling in most of the day (which was also higher than forecast) it was a pretty fun day. Wind dropped for a bit in the early afternoon, but came back solid. A real nice treat to have some waves to play in and some excellent ramps for jumping.

Today it cranked up another notch. F...ing wind was a term I heard a lot today. I went out on my 4.0 and JP77. One reach out and back and I came in to add maximum downhaul and outhaul. Went out again and was very powered up. The waves at Lowers were mostly gone today - a few would sneak in occasionally, but Uppers was still getting some good shoulder to head high sets. Really weird to see the return of the Weird Wave and the Triangle was a seething cauldron of doom for anyone not used to sailing through it today. The rolling swell outside the break at Uppers had some really nice big smoothies rolling in. Great fun! Oh yeah - the forecasters. Today the marine was predicting 15 and the zone was predicting 10 - 20. iWindsurf graphs and Kahului airport readings show averages around 30 most of the day!

Light wind and small surf

It started out as another beautiful day in paradise today. Winds were mostly light, and the north shore swell made a rare summer appearance. I got to the beach around 2:00 to beautiful blue skies and water, a few people out cruising around on big gear (for Maui). Some nice looking small waves breaking at Uppers, not much at Lowers. A few head-high sets came in through the day. I rigged my 5.8 and launched just as a squall was blowing in from upwind. I slogged around a bit then the pre-squall gusts hit and I sailed well-powered for half an hour or so before the post-squall lull hit. After the squall passed the wind dropped. Didn't look like it was going to come back so I de-rigged to go do other things. Just as I got de-rigged the wind came back of course. Doh! Debated re-rigging but opted not to.

Another north shore swell is forecast for Wednesday but the winds may drop off a bit more. Tropical storm Estelle is forecast to pass 200 miles south of the Big Island so it won't have much effect on Maui since it's also rapidly weakening.

Wait a minute ... it was supposed to be windy today

What a difference between today and yesterday. Yesterday was beautiful weather and strong 4.0 wind. Today was gray, rainy, and meager low-teens wind. Forecasters are saying that "moderate" trades will be with us for several days, but they were disappointingly whimpy today. Tomorrow? Who knows. And now they're saying that tropical storm Estelle will only bump up the winds on the Big Island. If nothing else, there should be abundant surf on north and east shores the next few days. Time to wax up the surf board.

Pseudo-nuclear weekend winds

Winds kicked in another notch today - well powered 4.0 for me at Kanaha. Kanaha was pretty crowded today as lots of European and Japanese tourists are in town and Hot Sails was doing a demo day at the beach today. Lots of people are raving about Hot Sail's colorful Dacron sails.

Some small swell at Uppers today, perhaps some advance forerunners of the north swell that's supposed to roll in starting tomorrow night and peaking on Monday. Another north swell is predicted for Wednesday.

Next week should be interesting on Maui as tropical storm Estelle is forecast to pass just to our south on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have a strong trade wind pressure gradient already and with the Estelle's low pressure passing to our south it should tighten the gradients even more. Should go absolutely ballistic on Tuesday and/or Wednesday. Stay tuned.

100

Finally hit 100 days of sailing this year yesterday. It's been a weird August for wind. Mostly it's been pretty light, barely enough for even formula gear. Trades were mostly absent this week, but returned late Thursday afternoon. Friday brought even more wind. Started out lightly powered on 5.0 and big board but the wind kicked in to 4.5 levels. Wind had a little difficulty deciding which direction it wanted to blow from, north or east. No swell or waves yesterday but that is forecast to change Sunday or Monday as an out of season swell generated by a low in Gulf of Alaska is forecast to bring some fair size swell to the north shore. We're also forecast to get some southeast swell from tropical storm Estelle which is due to pass to our south next week.

99 Days

Yesterday marked my last day of double digit sailing this year. Getting 100 days of sailing in a year has longed seemed an elusive goal. Now, the next day I sail, maybe later today, I'll hit that magic mark.

Yesterday was a sweet 4.0 day at Kanaha. The wind has been raging all week on the north shore. Earlier in the week was pretty gusty, but yesterday was a nice steady, very powered 4.0. No swell, so it was pretty much just flat water blasting, but it was pretty fun nonetheless.

Today looks like it's shaping up to be the same. From my new place upcountry in Pukalani I can see the white caps on the water on the north shore and the newly functioning iWindsurf Kanaha sensor is indicating wind in the mid-20s today.

Maui Goes Nuclear

The wind kicked in big time here on Maui on Tuesday. Got there early to get some sailing in before having to move. 4.5 was barely enough slogging out. Worked upwind to Uppers and then the switch came on. Wham! Wind kicked in to solid 4.0. There was a small swell and I tried to play in that a bit, but the wind was too strong and the water was getting too churned up. Just when I thought I was crazily overpowered, the wind notched up a bit more, easyily 3.7 for me. Had a "fun" time working my way back downwind. Packed up and called it a day.

Yesterday was much the same from what I've heard. I had too much to do to make it to the water, but word was that it was as windy or windier yesterday than Tuesday.

August Wind Drought Over

Wow. Nine days in Maui during the summer without sailing. Don't believe anyone that tells you summer in Maui is steady 4.5 wind everyday for months. It's just not true. Up until yesterday, August was marked by very very light winds, first thanks to former hurricanes Darby and Estelle, then the normal high pressure was just too weak and too far away to produce much wind.

Some big gear sailing a few days last week. On Friday last week it apparently came up enough where I could have sailed 5.0 briefly in the afternoon for an hour, but I missed it. This last weekend was stiflingly calm, hot and muggy, until late Sunday afternoon when the wind started its return.

Yesterday looked to be pretty light too. Went out on 5.0, but was very quickly overpowered on this. Turned out to be a well-powered 4.5 afternoon yesterday.

According to the weather guys we should see wind through the rest of this week. And, there's even been mention of a possbile rare summer northwest swell hitting today.

Darby and Estelle

It's hurricane season here in the Pacific and right now, Maui is under the influence of former-hurricane Darby. Darby didn't last long as a hurricane off the coast of Mexico before it died down to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression, but it still has a mass of moisture and clouds which are currently north of the Big Island and Maui, effectively shutting off the trade winds and bringing cloudy skies and rains yesterday and today. Maui is on a flash flood watch today as we're expecting locally heavy rain in places.

Behind Darby to our east is Estelle. Estelle is now a tropical depression and is expected to devolve even more by the time it reaches us, but, like Darby, is expected to bring rain and showers to the islands. So, this looks like it will be a wet, gray week for Maui.