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Nasty looking front came through this morning, you know the drill, Weather Channel
announcers going bonkers about hail and tornado watches--all kinds of yellow and red
on the radar. But it did look windy outside so I headed to the flats just
thinking I'd check to see if anybody was actually crazy enough to sail. Drove
out through the flooded area at the beach (felt sorry for the car but vowed
to wash it down at the carwash afterwards) and a couple kiters were already
out there. The stormy clouds were over Port Isabel, the wind was steady,
and it didn't seem too threatening. The radar on my phone said things would
probably change soon though. So I chickened out and waited. Eventually it
appeared that the storm had stalled between Corpus and Brownsville and it
really wouldn't be making a rough entry. So I rigged up the 8.3 and went out,
just in time for the wind to die. Sigh... no possibility of planing but did
work practicing my much neglected tacks in the steady breeze. Finally that
gave out too and I packed it in. That evening at around 5:30 the wind came
up with a vengence. Oh how tempted I was to drive out to the flats and rig
up for a sunset sail. But I wasn't convinced it would hold. It did--the
guy at the shop the next day reported back 5.0 conditions, probably 5.5 for
me. C'est la vie.
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