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First day in Oso Bay. I'd been out there a couple of lighter days to check it out. Today it was really windy and we decided to head out there. Charlie and Mike were first, and Charlie finished before I got out there. Mike came in to rig down and I rigged my 4.7, the same size as Carl was putting on. He got on the water about 30 minutes after I did, as he had just left work.
The lauch at South Bay park is great. There is a nice (big) residential park overlooking the bay. It's shallow for a stretch, then about waste to chest deep the rest of the way. There are unknown obstacles in the water, though, so it's a little exciting.
When I first went out, I didn't feel comfortable at all... I was spinning out, wussing out and not having fun. But, I adjusted the harness lines, swapped my seat harness for my waist harness, downhauled the sail some more and stuck it out. The next hour or so was TONS of fun.
I really like choppy water. It's so much more fun to go a little slower and have to pick your way through the chop & swell. The relatively big Carve 111 was fine in this, though the chop wasn't as bad as many places, it was a lot more choppy that Bird Island or Grassy Point proper (though not as much as The Playground at GP).
I hit a few really nice jibes, caught a little air, but was generally not comfortable enough in the chop to really want to try catching any air. I could have, though, there were plenty of nice ramps out there. The landings wouldn't have been too bad, either, but I was a little worried about a big wreck and bouncing off of a old abandoned crab trap on the bottom.
We might try to get the local Navy minesweeping unit to tell us what is in the water there, or get the local college's surveyors to help. If not for unknown underwater junk, the place would be a top sailing place for me. The other "hazard" is a waste-water treatment plant nearby (sewage). It's a decent ways away, is downwind, and empties more towards Corpus Christi Bay than towards the place we were sailing in Oso Bay.
Carl showed me his house, gave me TWO beers (what a guy!), and showed me the thing in Windsurfing Magazine that lists the Laguna Shores, TX iwindsurf.com sensor as the best sailing spot in the US last year (a good year, but none-the-less). It was based on most sailable days. Laguna Shores sensor is right by Grassy Point and about 3 miles from Oso. It read 29, gusting to 35+ today. YEAH!
Loving this! Just a rash guard today again. The water is very warm. I need to get better sunscreen for my nose, though, as it is really red. I've burned it a lot in my life (I have a "prominent nose"), so I need to take care of it before I get cancer and they have to lop it off.
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