average: 30
    gusts: 35

Day 3 of Hurricane Dolly:  After spending most of yesterday sitting in my van at the beach waiting for conditions to improve, I figured taking the jetty boat over to St. Joe this morning would be the best bet.  Yeeeeehaaaaaw!  St. Joe delivered!  Tamay, Oliver, Matt, and I caugt the 11 am boat to the island with surfers Cody and John.  The ride over was wet and rough.  When the captain signaled us to unload, the boat slipped off the dock and lurched forward sending Tamay and Matt to the deck.  Lucky, they were okay, and the rest of us hadn't even stood up yet.  Hauling all the gear 1000 feet to the beach and into the wind was a workout and it took two trips, but you have to bring everything you might need plus water and snacks.        

Oliver was the first to hit the water on his 5.0  He tail walked to the first bar where he jibbed smoothly, but came right in to rig 4.5.  I lucked out and had rigged 4.2 and hit the water next.  I was on my favorite sail, the conditions looked right, at my namesake island, what could go wrong?  Nothing!  Ten seconds in and it was shaping up to be a perfect day.  It turned out that way for everyone, even the 2 surfers.  No one lost their gear or even got worked. 

I don't know how big the waves were.  10'++ on the outside (the buoy hit 24'), but we weren't really riding those, mostly just trying to out run them.  I eventually got the confidence to jibe on a couple.  It was so fast down the face that my vision blurred.  Whew!   The waves we were riding were inside and closer to the jetty and probably 6 to 8'.  Clean and smooth.  Gently sloped faces with ocasional steep sections.  It was like making S-turns down an endless snow powdered mountain.

As 3 o'clock arrived it was time to start derigging, packing, and lugging wet gear and tired bodies back to the dock to catch the 4 o'clock boat back to Port A.  I didn't want to leave and thought about holding out till the 6 o'clock boat.  One last run out and one more wave in, then I realized that I had just enough strength left in my hands and body to make that luggage run to the dock.

The ride home went smoother and not to many things could have damped our spirits anyway.  Thank You Dolly :-)   OTW-2:28