I chose to sail extremely late because:
- the wind was offshore and very gusty (like 10 to 30 kinda gusty) and I wanted it to get much lighter
- only in the last part of the day, some sets of the new swell showed up
- the number of sailors went down.
Didn't last long, because of course the surfers paddled out, but I got a couple in my favorite conditions: light to almost no wind, offshore and uncrowded.
I just like the challenges that this kind of sailing offers, from the no wind tacks, to emergency uphauling in front of the rocks, to positioning, etc.
Nonetheless, I'd like to start today's call not with a windsurfing photo, but with a beautiful image of a Maui wave from John Patao. That barrel is so square, that wave should be called The Maui Box.
Today it should be a lot more about surfing... but not only.
Below is the graph of the three main buoys of interest for us. Notice how the swell did turn west as predicted (at the NW buoy) and notice also how consistent the directions at the other two buoys are.
It doesn't matter how west a swell is at the NW buoy, the directions at the Waimea and the Pauwela buoys will always be around 310 and 320!
That's because those buoys register the swell AFTER it has refracted on the upstream islands.
What changes depending on the original direction is the size AND the consistency (this last one not reported by the buoys).
You guys remember the sizes of the last huge one? They're somewhere down on this blog, but I'm just gonna try to go by heart. I think there were around 20, 14 and 10 or something like that.
This one instead is offering 8, 6 and 4. Not exactly the same proportion, but almost!
The more of these examples you try to memorize, the more able you will be to tell what the next swell is going to do.
ANYWAY, 4f 18s.... I'll take them any day!!!
I don't hear much noise out of my window (and there's no wind), so I'm expecting it to be inconsistent.
Local wind conditions are key for the quality of the waves.
Below is the wind map that shows a fetch that moved in a more northerly position (good, I dig north swells) and the local wind direction that will be ESE. That's a great direction for some glassy dawns, but (specially if it's sunny), it will allow some easterly flow to fill in in the afternoon. Maybe not Hookipa (too many surfers), but someone might attempt to sail/kite Lanes.
The noon wind map from MC @ 2km does confirm that.
Have fun in the sun everyone!
PS. All the sources for this post are permanently linked in the links section on the right of this blog.
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