out to sea

this morning i woke up to a gray sky and a stiff wind. after an hour and 20 minutes of mt. biking i preped the sail boat for an adventure.

i took it down to park point (big sand beach), and met up with jason and one of his friends. we set up my 14 foot racing sailboat against 25 mph winds. it was crazy windy, a perfect east wind bringing in nice waves. there were guys surfing, and some kite surfing i saw one guy get like 20 feet of air. it was sweet. once the boat was set up it was time to see what would happen. we put on some wet suits since the air was about 65 and water at cold. then we had to get through the surf. that was the part. we had to push out a bit because the daggerboard doesnt work in shallow water. then i jumped in pulled in the sail and pulled jason on board. we still had a bunch of surf to get through and it was crazy. the best way to describe it would be those storm stories you see on the weather channel and such. but in real life. the water just crashed over us. somehow we kept her upright and got out past the breakers. then the wave stopped breaking, but got huge. the weather man said 5-7 feet. but that is only half the wave since waves are measured from normal water level, and a wave goes up and down. so 10-14 foot swells. it was insane. we had wrapped the sail around the mast to decrease sail area, as not to die. and with that and two people in the boat we still were able to plane (like a speed boat) down in the trough of the wave it was fairly calm, and up on top it was 25 mph wind. the waves were just mountains of water. it was just insane to experience. i had to look almost straight up to see the tops. just crazy. after a bit we came in to see if jasons friend wanted to try, but she is not a very experinced sailor so she passed. jason and i tried to get out again, but the surf defeated us and we flipped and broke a piece of metal that holds the rudder in place. so we had to call it a day.
but man it was just so much fun. jasons friend got some pictures so thats what you see below. enjoy!

inital launch

about to clear the breakers

The open sea

the top half of the 16 foot mast

surfin

wheres jason? (beginning of the end)

jason just chillin