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It was a relatively chilly day for April in Corpus Christi - 65 and windy. I did some work and had some errands to run, so I headed out about 12:30 and made it to Grassy Point by about 1:30. The water looked like it was really low, and no one was there, but it was blowing a little so I rigged my 6.6 and put the 14.5" fin on the Carve and went out.
It was straight onshore so I had to pinch a little to get out. I kept running aground it was so low, so it took about 10 minutes to make it 250 yards upwind to where I wasn't scraping the whole time. I was paranoid about running aground so I kept my reaches short. It was a pity, though, because things work working well. It was blowing a consistent 20-22 and that is perfect for the 6.6. I got planing quickly and pulled off a bunch of jibes. Nothing perfect, but lots of good practice. Many times I could feel the fin hit bottom while planing or jibing so after only another 30 minutes I pointed the board straight downwind and headed in.
After derigging I headed to Pep Boys and bought two pair of safety glasses. They have really improved the look of these lately and I have two pair that look like normal sunglasses, but are much safer (impact, UV, side protection, etc). One pair are clear, but I'll use them on cloudy days or in the evening. My contacts dry out easily in wind, and spray often gets me, too.
I also bought a $30 car cover to use to cover my sails. Barry Spanier, the sail designer for Gaastra, said in a recent magazine article that for every hour you leave your sail laying on the beach in the sun, that's one hour you can't use it. If the wind changes, I have enough booms and masts to have several sails rigged at once. If I have two rigged, I don't want to leave one there for 4 or 5 hours, soaking up UV and dying. My Ezzy information says it has about 300 of these hours in it. I aim to keep these sails a long time. They are getting great reviews in the magazines and I'm glad I bought them when I did. If I take care of them, it might be three or four years before I need new sails, even with the amount of time I'll be using them year-round.
Finally, after Pep Boys I headed to the Bay. If there was anyone sailing, I was going to go. The wind was good, it was onshore, and I was feeling good. Unfortunately, once again there was no one. I have seen just a few people sailing on the bay. I've heard stories of it being really crowded when it's blowing 30, but I want to get out there and get a taste of it when it's a manageable 22. No go. What a disappointment this is to me. When I planned to move here, I thought it would be an obvious windsurfing town. But you hardly ever see anyone with windsurfing equipment on their vehicle, there are two small shops and the only place that will have some people sailing for sure is Bird Island, but I don't want to drive there every day to sail. I also don't want to sail alone on the Bay. That's a recipe for disaster, in my opinion. Very frustrating. I hear stories about how the Gorge is 500% overcrowded and here we could literally fit 1,000 windsurfers on the water and not even notice, but there isn't even one. All this wind, warmth and water, and few utilizing it. I might just have to sail alone out there if I'm going to do it.
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