lulls: 15
    average: 18
    gusts: 22

The wind was fantastic again.  I used my bigger board but still had a lot of fun.  The wind is clean and consistent, the chop lines up better and isn't so much of a blender.  It's a lot of fun to run up and down along the beach like that.  The shortie was to ward off the jellies... I haven't seen a stinging jellyfish for a few sessions, but I still get the stingers now and then. 

I want to talk a little bit more about why North Beach is so great for me.  I'm a bit hesitant about sailing in places where a breakdown means long swims or worse, in the case of an outgoing tide or off-shore wind.  As good as Corpus Christi is, you can't always count on someone being around to sail with you.  I figured when I moved here there would be thousands of windsurfers, with cars loaded with gear at every stoplight.  But, alas, it's not even close.  It's amazing, really.  It's such a great place to windsurf.

So, at North Beach, you pinch up wind, maybe go 300 yards off shore (but you can touch bottom about 125 yards off shore).  You have everything you need.  I used to sail across the channel at Bird Island for a little chop, but if you broke something out there, it's a pain to get back.  I was lucky, my three breakdowns at BIB were all near the launch, with the farthest being a broken boom about halfway between the launch and the second island.  I lashed the boom together and sailed the mile or so back.  The other two were within 1/4 mile and I just waded in the chest deep water.  

At Grassy Point I sailed upwind to what I called "the Playground" a few times.  There was some pretty good chop up there, but again, a breakdown would take forever to return.  When I broke a boom at Oleander, I drifted and thought about the walk I was going to have to take.  I'm not big on long sailing trips, I like sailing near the launch and just bumping around a lot.  The reach along North Beach is a little more than a mile, but that's enough.  It's  fairly safe, which allows me to enjoy the conditions, which quite frankly are pretty challenging, even on a light wind day like today, when I was on my 6.6 and big board.

Other than a bit of a difficulty getting out through the shorebreak, North Beach is just an awesome place to sail.  It fits my somewhat cautious personality perfectly.  I love to launch and return to sandy beaches.  I love the touristy feel of the Surfside Park area, the Aquarium and the Lexington.   I love that I can park at Pete & Carrie's and not worry about my car or my gear.   I love that when I break something, I'll just float back to where I started.  Maybe I'm not that adventurous, but that's just who I've always been, so I'm glad to finally have found a launch that really suits me.  This is no knock on the great variety of launches around here, but I've always been a baffer.  Mike Murphy regularly sails out to the sunset at BIB.   Chip Biery used to rig up a bunch of gear from the 1990's and disappear out into the middle of the bay for an hour.  No reaches back to shore, just go way out and stay there.  And that was after his kidney transplant!  See, that's just never been me.   I'm so much more of a landlubber.  I just love the feeling of windsurfing, a feeling I can get just as well right by shore as I can out by an oil rig.

So, North Beach probably isn't for everyone, but I love it.

Tons of cabbage heads today.  Saw one turtle, too.