Paddling and Wind — maybe Not a Bad Mix After All

Hoping for some flatwater paddleboarding on Oct 21. It started out looking like a very mellow day, but picked up to sailable conditions. We did both.

Stehli was way too choppy already, so we drove to OYSTER BAY where we had a better chance of a wind shadow. Sure enough the wind built, by the time we were well under paddle, until it filled every crevice. That's October in New York. Windy.

The Duck Pond ... OK a bit larger than a Pond but
still OK for ducks ... ducks that don't
mind being hunted, that is.

But being on what some of us call the "Duck Pond" the water was still flat enough to make for good paddling anywhere but directly upwind. 

Upwind — the solution — zig-zag on alternating tacks. It took a wee while but we made our way up to the "corner" of the marsh grass by the rod and gun club.

Fortunately no duck hunters out.

The return trip was a predictably fast downwinder. Frankly, I don't mind the upwind paddling, you feel like you're going faster as the small waves pass under your board.

Stroking across the wind afforded the luxury of not having to change hands: you could literally paddle on the left side of the board — out on a beam reach — and the wind provided the straightening force. Ditto coming back, you could paddle on the right.

We continued the downwinder past the bathhouse and headed back out, wending our way around a series of strategically placed speed limit buoys, before grinding back in across the wind.

With the wind theme picking up, our paddling arms were now well pumped. I decided to ditch the paddle and rig up a 5.3 to give Gordo a well-deserved flat-water lesson (after so many struggling lessons in Heckscher heavy chop he was due to experience the ease of learning in calm waters).

Approximate paddle course — tacking upwind and
paddling across the wind was a good part of the day's work.

He did way better this time — really getting his first feel of riding and staying on the board for long enough to actually say "yes, now I'm sailing, now what? … How do I turn this thing around in real life, not just in theory?"

So his next challenge — to figure out how to tack and jibe. After that, and keep on refining the sailing position a bit more.

P.S. The wind however, was venturi-ing from the West, under the Oyster Bay bridge and accelerating past the marsh grass by the Rod and Gun club. so there was a definite wind line about 10 yards out. A 6.0 - 6.5 and a 110+ Lts for normal size folk would have been a cinch for planing.

Don't ask why I left the harness at home. There is never a good reason for that. But — if you do, you can bet you're going to get wind. OK I had Marg's waist harness, but while I could just about get the velcro to meet, there was no way I was able to buckle that thing up. Watch out, though, if I lose another 15 lbs, I could borrow her harness, LOL.

Coming back from mid-bay, I had to hang on like a crab claw just to make it back from a long excursion in chase of a fancy yacht. By the time Joe G arrived, however, it was dead — over and done by 5:30 or 6 pm.

After the rack-like traction of sailing without a hook I wonder, just how did those original guys deal with long rides in solid winds in the days before harnesses were invented? All of us who learned after 1992 had it easy ?

P.P.S. I have a recovering cervical radiculopathy in the neck — 75-85% better this year which is why I'm sailing again — but, at one point today, had to resort to an old-school trick of hooking the elbow (in my nerve-compromised left arm) over the boom just to take a rest from hanging on. An hour's paddling had taken a toll there, and sailing harness-less was the coup de grace that finished it off.