Ahhhhh!!! Winter sailing!

After everyone raving about the wind during the storm on Sunday and Monday I was really itching for a session. It looked like Tuesday would be mid 20s and perfect tide and wind direction for West Meadow. So that was the call.

At 10AM I packed up the truck with all the winter neoprene and headed for the Meadow. As I approached the gate I saw a HUGE pile of snow about even with the roof of my expedition. The problem was that it was sitting smack in the middle of the entrance. As I pulled up to the pile I could see the exit way was plowed in, but surely doable in 4 wheel drive. It was about even with the top of the front bumper. I contemplated turning around for a split second as I took another look at the 4.2 conditions and perfect flat water. Then I glanced back at my trailer. Yes I was about to make a 90 degree right turn into a 3 foot pile of plowed snow towing a trailer. As I hit the gas I was definitely not going the "right" direction. So I backed up. then went forward, then backed up, then went forward, then went back, then went forward. You get the point. There was already 1 set of tracks going through, so I figured all I had to do was flatten it out a bit. After 5 or 6 minutes of going forward and backward and getting a few looks from people walking past (the same looks you get when you come back out after sailing in below freezing temps) I finally got some directional control with the front wheels and made my right. Piece of cake. There was only one other car in the parking lot. A couple of kiters that I see sailing there all the time jumped out of their 4x4 truck and came running over. "How the F@(k did you get in here with a trailer!!!?????," one said. "And more importantly, are you going out?"

Well, both answers seemed pretty obvious, but I answered anyway. "I just drove right in, and hell yes I'm going out!"

I rigged the 4.2 and hit the water. Full power right away. Then as I started moving got overpowered right before schlogging, right before being overpowered again. Lets just say it looked way better from the beach. I still sailed for 2 1/2 hours on a 4.2 but here's my impression of me sailing that day. Underpowered, underpowered, powered, overpowered, overpowered, OVERPOWERED, OVERPOWERED, overpowered, try trick, blow up. Scholg scholg, OVERPOWERED, OVERPOWERED, overpowered, try trick, blow up! Repeat for 2 hours with the occasional clean trick, realize that I'm crashing so much probably because I can't feel my feet, sail for another 1/2 hour then pack it in. So I walked back up the beach with the ice cubes attached to the bottom of my legs. Cue strange looks from bystanders and we've got another winter session on LI in the bag. It was kinda weird trying to move out of the way of tractor moving snow as I was de-rigging. And after all that, YES I'D LIKE ANOTHER!