Pre-Halloween Sailing

The week before Halloween have been anything but a nightmare for windsurfers here on Maui. On Thursday the Trades bumped up a notch over Wednsesday's levels and yesterday saw another bump up in wind strength. I had to make it an early session yesterday in order to go play tour guide for visiting family. The wind look fairly light at 11:00am as I was about to hit the water with my 5.0. Once I got to the wind line however the wind attacked like a villain in a teen thrasher movie. As I tail-walked my board up to Uppers, sheeted out the whole way, monster gusts tried thrashed and bashed. I opted to tailwalk back downwind to Lowers where it is often lighter. Sailed a few reaches there and even caught a nice shoulder high wave, but I couldn't depower the sail enough to ride down the line. Went in and flattened the beejeebers out of the sail and went back out. Lots of people arriving asking my "How is it out there?" They all looked at me incredulously as I told them I could easily be maxed out on my 4.5 - it still looked pretty light from shore.

Went back out with my newly flattened out sail and sailed until noon, barely managing to stay under control. The gusts continued to be horrific. When I returned later in the afternoon to check on conditions, the word of the day from everyone was 'gusty.' I stopped by Ho'okipa mid-day to watch bit. A small north swell was brining head-high waves along with the high winds.

Today sounds like it may be similar and then on Halloween day, tomorrow, the winds are forecast to start turning southeasterly.