March Madness

To most people in the U.S., March Madness means NCAA basketball. To Maui windsurfers this year, it means the mental condition we're in due to the incredibly wet weather. Yep, more rain folks. While the other Hawaiian islands have been getting more rain the Maui over the last month, Maui saw its fair share today, with some huge downpours and even a tornado warning.

I suppose it was technically sailable at Kihei today. If you subscribe to iWindsurf, check out the graph for today. If you don't, well, let's just say that the wind in Kihei was a bit up and down. Starting in the morning with average wind in the low 30s gusting into the 40s, that dropping back into the 20s, then to absolutely 0 mph, followed by another gusty period with winds averaging in the upper 30s, gusting to the mid-40s, followed by a drop into the 20s and then lower. I'm interested to here from Norm if he and Bernd sailed there today. I can't imagine anybody could have picked the right sail at any given time.

Anyway, believe it or not, the forecasters are finally saying that this weekend may see an end to this rainy madness we've suffered through for the last several weeks. And our very own Speedy has unconditionally guaranteed that the wind will return even earlier, perhhaps Wednesday or Thursday. Personally, I'm a bit dubious about Speedy's prediction, but I'd love to see that come true. My personal prognostication is for light trades to return on Friday at 10:13 am with NE wind at 13 mph building to 17 with occasional episodes of 19 or so in the afternoon, then sailable trades on Saturday, starting in the mid- to upper-teens in the morning, and hitting the low 20s in the afternoon. But, what the hell do I know.