Well, October 11 was the last Thursday evening practice session at St. Philips for the year. It was a windy and rainy evening and it seems everyone else gave it a pass. I stuck round in the cove for a while and then decided to paddle up the shore a bit.
The wind was ESE when I left the cove but in very short order the wind turned WSW as forecasted. And, it picked up considerably. In no time at all I was paddling into 20 kt winds with gusts to 30 and 1 meter wind waves. I turned back. There was spray coming off the waves. I thought to myself, I better hold the paddle a bit tighter.
There was no panic, just some super surf rides. The strong winds at my back made it easy to catch the waves.
When I got back the light was failing. The evenings from now on will be just to short to make it worthwhile.
We've had a mild summer in term of conditions but it was successful nonetheless. Our average contingent over the summer was 6-7 paddlers. The most I believe was 10 and the fewest was one, this evening.
I'll miss these Thursday evening events because its not all about practice but a chance for a bit of social interaction.
Well Tony, trust it to you to get out there on Thursday, even if it is only 'practice for one'... I don't think I made it to half of them this year... but hopefully next year I can get back on track with them....
ReplyDeleteI felt I had to go in case anyone else showed up. I held out hope that you had the use of your car ... if you did I knew you'd be there.
ReplyDeleteWe'll just move these practices to the weekend when its not fit to paddle otherwise.
Tony :-)
that's funny, we'll paddle on weekends when it's not fit to paddle....
ReplyDeleteYup, call me crazy!
ReplyDeleteTony :-)