Domer Hasselhoff! Tamer of wild seas!Rigged, suited up, sweaty, and ....
OK, where's the rest of the beach?!!??
Where has GIlgo gone ??!
The ocean is angry and it's practically up to the last dune before the tunnel. There ain't much left of it. And the brown foam is crashing over the sand shelf.
Jeff and Phil -- at RM5 One wild day back when. Today was something like this. Except with fading light.... a 3ft high shelf that's ben carved into the last of the sand by Earl or the last set of easteriles.
High tide, extra high. The Wind has been building for 4 hours and the water's stacked up high. Very "Victory at Sea" high, and unleashing foam and fury.
"What's the smallest sail you've got?" asked Domer. 4.7. We rig.
Domer's out there first and I'm going to see how it goes.
I emerge from the tunnnel, test my rig, and it takes all my weight to do any kind of sheeting in. Holy crud! 4.7 and survival conditions. I look downwind ... a long way and locate Domer's sail somewhere out there in the mayhem. He's the wind toy.
I haven't done anything like this in years -- not since that wild RM5 day. Even the 4.2 day at Overlook was nothing compared to this.
Gilgo wind build upWith 20 minutes light left I'll gladly, well not gladly, just dolefully take a pass on this. Getting dark around 7 ish now.4 runs 3 jibes (?) and it looks like it's over for the Domer. Kudos. That was some kind of beast out there today. He was plenty powered up, he said, but a crazy strong longshore drift dragged him down wind, and he had to bear off like crazy. Jury's still out on the Goya by the sound of it. But Domer got a few macker wave rides in before it was over. "I tried to pinch up, but each time I did there was a head high wave to get over, and the board didn't want to go upwind, I was just losing ground."
Looked like he got some nice turns in tho, from a distance.
Gilgo to the east is scalloped back into a cove. So you are launching at the top of it. If you lose your rig in a jibe in that, it's a long way back to shore. Been there, done that. Not tonight. I was hooping for something more mellow for my first session back on the ocean in 2 years. Some nice gentle 6.0 or 5.7, not the raging hairy wild thing that was out there today.
"I couldn't figure out where to land," he said, "since he was looking at a cliff of sand all the way down." No slope anywhere. Just crashing shorebreak against a wall of vertical sand.
Tobay tonightThe sunlight is fading to sunset fast. I go down the beach to help with the board. Domer's seen the light dwindle and decided he's done.
D'oh — Wish I found the camera while he was on the water. Forgot I had one in the van.
Salsa Shack of Ely's dreams? Well no today ocean shots, but a couple of sunset scenes for ambience.
Well done McPhilly and Sir Domers. Very admirable!
ReplyDeleteMan you rule.
ReplyDeleteI'm not worthy.
I totaly bailed when I saw that wind.
I'll be back this weekend.
Frank
I suited, I rigged, I tried to hold down the 4.7 on the beach (not happening).
ReplyDeleteI figured I'd let Domes be the wind (blast) angry sea toy, watch how it goes. After seeing him dissapear, and how huge it was, and where he ended up, I decided to become Domer's board caddy instead!!!!
The credit is all Domer's.
Losing it where East of Gilgo scallops back to the north would not have been good. A beam reach takes you well offshore.
I realized I hadn't swum real hard for very long, in earnest, in a while, and the last time I lost it at Heck in 4.7 was a heck of a swim. I don't trust my jibes and swimming after my gear in the heavy rinse cycle. It's one thing 5.7, it's another when it's spiking 4.2.
Did Overlook 4.2 once, and it was mellow compared to this.