Consolation Prize

Last sailor outta the lot. Adios Joe's Beach, until the next time.

For missing today's wind and for schlogging yesterday, you get sunset vistas and fast roads.

So how windy was yesterday? Not as windy as it looked. Definitely doable on the big stuff, but a 6.3 and 137 ptrs was not big enough for me. 8.0 would have done the trick.

But I sold my 8.0, boom and mast, for a leg up on a SUP, so that's that for big sail sailing for now ...

Although there may be a generous deus ex machina: Drysuit2 says he has an old Infinity he hasn't used in years, if we do some digging in the basement ... that might just do the trick!  Bring on the races with Brook?

Smooth, downhill, no traffic and leaves left over
from last fall, and the fall before that,
and the fall before...

16-18-20-22? No way, not even close. I was there -- it was a schlogfest I tell you. Only 7.5 for  thebig guys or your name was "Bob," and even that wasn't enough half the time.

There were gusts, but they had no sustaining balls. Pumped onto a plane from time to time, here and there, but only for the sake of pumping for exercise, practice, dues paying and a little planing. 

Better than a trip to the gym, with the sun painting paths of glistening light on the reach back to the beach, and kaleidoscopes of color and jewels in the sail window X-ply of stained glass. In the groove with the occasional knee-to-thigh swells, surfing them from time to time; tiptoe on the back foot to let the back of the board lift and the front slip down the swell.

Bzzz ... Does Shaving Make you Faster?

Not sure whether this has made it's way to windsurfing racing, but as far as cycling is concerned, the answer is a resounding — difference making — Yes!

For now, though I'll just stick with the wet legs effect, whatever that is.

http://www.roadbikereview.com/reviews/video-do-shaved-legs-make-you-faster

Cape Cod, the Sandwich Shark (Part II), and Paying it Forward

A screeenshot of a screenshot of the offending critter, as seen
in The Cape Cod Times and Cape Cod Bay

FISH THOUGHTS
I'd paddled that morning to the ocean, and had kept a weather eye for fins. But at Kalmus, all thought of sharks, were put out of mind by the business and missing paraphernalia of windsurfing. After all, this was the harbor, and this week's (June 30->)  great white sighting happened near Sandwich.

Sandwich?? Wait a minute!

What the heck is a great white doing lurking in the southwest corner of Cape Cod Bay?

Chatham, yes, with all the seals, we expect ... but Sandwich?

Well, as long as he or she doesn't reverse course, swing by Provincetown and back down the cape, and along the coast toward Woods Hole, we're OK for the duration.

From ocearch.org.

SUPing across the bay to the ocean will resume at 7 am, before the sea breeze really kicks in.

Viva vacation on Cape Cod.




Every now and zen I try to remember to bring an extra this or that, just in case someone forgets this or that. ... or to have a complete rig just in case Lenny shows up. And over the course of a windsurfing life, there's gratefully a lot of lend and loan. Harnesses, lines, screwdrivers, sails, boards, UJ's, masts, fins, screws ... you name any of the myriad paraphernalia ... and we all know there are way too many parts, including many incompatible. Tut tut Tuttle ( I mean really ... metric screws?).

So recently, according to my crew on the beach I was "a dum-dum from New York" who forgot his boom.

Yup, in the last minute frenzy of loading the car, dog, teenage mutant ninja turtle and various sundries, and trying real hard to bring the absolute minimum ... I erred, and I mean erred to absolute minimum -1.

"Tell George Marr that George Pav was doing some nice tricks,"
said Mike Burns. Windy back in New York it is. 

I was all rigged up and suited up and the last part to go on was ... well that "minus-1" was the boom. However, ask and ye shall receive, and a fine gentleman named Jeff from Kalmus lent me one big enough for the biggest sail I brought ... a 5.8. A friendly bunch they are.

But I've been there so much, poured a lot of $,$$$ into the local economy, that I feel quite at home. All the same I was glad I'd "paid it forward" another time, another place.

It looked frothy out there. Kalmus is shallow and produces more whitecaps per knot/foot than Heck. I was convinced it would be like days of yore when Kal was 5.3 by 1 pm and 4.0 by 5pm. I figured I'd be blown off the water with my 109 L board. But not so. It never ramped up, and instead I paid my early season dues, with schlogging, pumping, switching to the big 14" weed fin and occasional planing. No matter. The extra workout of the schlogfest would come in handy in a week's time in New York.

"So how is New York?" Jeff asked.

"Well, it's been windy, but this here spot in Cape Cod has always been a reliable wind destination, maybe except maybe for the last few trips ... ." Does Kalmus still blow like it did? That was the question.

The New "Bethpage" Trailview Bike Path Extension is a Long Island Gem

Fellow rider takes a pause while I snap a cellie pic. The trail
entrances on major roads have complete trail network maps
with the essential "you are here" pointers for the uninitiated.

For sure, I was mortified when I saw some of my favorite Bethpage trails partially ravaged by bulldozers and heavy land-levelling equipment.

I quit cycling there for a few years while the crews toiled and other injuries healed.

It was worth the wait. Sort of.

I still mourn the loss of some trail single track sections that formed part of the park and the Greenbelt, but for the most part everything is intact, with the trail bypassing or looping around the premium single track parts.

Think there are ways to get around and put together a first-rate single track experience ... and now have a leisurely family ride, recovery ride or a smoking fast traffic free bike path ride — if any of the times being put up online are any gauge.

The pedestrian path opening on Haypath looking south.
The opening to the long-established single track bike
 trail is marked with blue blazes on similar log posts,
about 30 feet to the west.  

I've only done the leisurely cruise plus a little trail. There is tons, tons, if not scads of poison ivy all over the place. But where it ain't, things are good.

New tarmac. Smooth and fast, undulating and curvy. Best
served cool in spring or fall.

I am looking forward to taking a road bike out here one evening for a little hammer fest. There is a little road work going on near war looks like a new trail head park that might unseat the unwary speedster, but for the most part the going is swift.

One very useful feature are a series of mini trail-head parking lots — similar to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, good for about 6 to 16 cars depending. This was well thought out. On Long Island, some have pretty much had to burrow their vehicles into the shrubbery by the side of the road, if they sought the non-conventional access ... or were too hard up for the $8.50 or so it costs to get into the park for a day. So from that point of view, this is a thing of beauty. You might not have to drive all the way to Bethpage to ride ... if there's a spot on near Haypath, Executive Drive or Old Country Road.

Meanwhile back in the park, hydration calls. 

"Cape Cod Shark attacks (Part I) have the tourism industry worried" — So We Went to Cape Cod Anyway, SUP'd, Windsurfed ...

We were in abject need of a few days on the Cape ...

It had been way too long — 2 years, so XXXL sharks be damned* (the asterisk * is for scroll to bottom / Cap Cod Times News Article / not amusing carcharodon carcharias stuff).

Bikes packed, teenage mutant ninja turtle packed, a SUP and a couple of paddles packed, dog and dog gear packed, and most of the Windsurfing gear packed. By the way, *cough* Most experienced windsurfers know that "most of" doesn't cut it. All of it may not be necessary, but certain essential parts, are, well essential (but more on that in another embarrassing and possibly heartwarming post).

A light breeze, here, has it's advantages: Natural a/c keeps the gnats off.
Walking the dawg before SUP.  Charlie and his friend paddle by.
I am probably not far behi'. 

Anyway, once you have been bitten by the Cape it's hard, if not futile, to try to get it out of you. There are other plenty of other places I'd happily holiday; a trip to that other Cape down Hatteras way is always welcome. But we generally keep gravitating back to to the one named after the flavorsome fish. And besides, it's a lot quicker drive, especially when you are lucky enough to miss any significant traffic.

Shanny likes it, too.

So up we went, and within the time it takes to drive to Conn. rest stop #2**/walk the dog, drive on, grab a bite at a Wendy's in Rhode Island, and drive the stretch run to RT28 and Nathan Ellis Hwy, Sandwich Rd, Brick Kiln to Oxbow to Teaticket Hwy and Seacoast Shores, we were there. It seemed faster than ever. Or is that because we're older than ever? I dunno. It was like an old familiar home, although we hadn't been there for two years.

P.S. I'll let ya into a secret, if you're in the area; there's this little pizza joint in East Falnmouth called Pizza 1 Subs 2 that does terrific pizza even by New York standards, and has all the sandwich options your grumpy child and teenage fellow holiday makers could wish for ... and Adults, too. Plus, in the same strip mall is Kenyon's Market, where you can pick up all the sundries, beer, candles for use in the occasional passing tropical storm (yes, there was a power outage one year), Maalox, margarita mix (ask the proprietor if you can't find the regular mix).

And then you're good to go catch an evening paddle session, or maybe just maybe the end of evening blow at Kalmus, or just walk the dog and enjoy the carpet of stars laid out in the sky, the likes of which you forget existed back in New York.

----------------------


*Shark attacks in Cape Cod have the tourism industry worried

Doug Fraser, Cape Cod Times Jul 15, 2013 4:29 am

... Gustafson, owner of Fun Seekers, the oldest surf school on Cape Cod, has been in business for 21 years in Wellfleet.

“When the phones did ring, it was somebody calling to cancel their lesson,” he said.

One shark attack in 76 years does not make a trend, but scientists say it’s inevitable there will be a second or third great white attack — possibly a fatality — as the local seal population explodes in areas near popular Cape beaches. And that has business owners worried.

“God forbid, if there was another. We’d see a reversal to last summer, but more intense,” said Josh Smith, manager at Sickday Surf & Skate, a Wellfleet shop. The store’s surf lessons dropped off the cliff after Myers was attacked last summer, Smith said.

Some people, however, who have studied or seen the repercussions of shark attacks in other communities, say the public’s ability to put such events in context is underestimated and the economic fallout rarely extends beyond a few weeks.

There’s no question a lot of money is at stake.

Barnstable County ranks fourth of 14 counties in the state for tourism expenditures with nearly $852 billion spent by visitors in 2011. Of that, more than $217 million went to payrolls.

** Conn rest stop #1 is under reconstruction. As of this printing there are no facilities.