10/11 DCCB, 5.3m sail, 96L board
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:33 pmDisappointing wind today. Too much moisture and too unsettled to really get good wind. DC still early at 11 AM but more like squirrelly 7.5 most of the PM with rain.
By noon, there was still no wind up here, and it looked as though Craig's forecast had been, if anything, too optimistic. The only disturbance was the sound of sirens, which seemed to be coming from the vicinity of Island Beach. Then, suddenly, a little before 12:30, the SW wind hit Charleston. Hopped in the van and headed toward DCIB, only to encounter a road block at the corner of UT113 and US189; turns out the sirens were about a turned over cattle truck full of sheep, and the clean up was expected to take 4 hours.
What to do? 
The parking area for BWB was full to overflowing, and anyway, the water there is now a long way away for someone hauling poleboarding gear; definitely something to be said for the darkside. Would it be possible to launch at Charleston Bridge? Yes, although it's now pretty shallow; I had to walk out quite a ways to get even my 34cm fin to clear the bottom. Once out, a 5.3 provided plenty of power - a bit too much, in fact, with gusts as high as 40mph (recorded at my house, where the wind is usually not as strong as it is at the lake!) Decided to go down to a 4.5, but by the time I got it rigged, the wind had backed off quite a bit and had gotten pretty squirrelly. No boats, just a few anglers walking around in the shallows. Almost cold enough for gloves.http://gallery.me.com/jsouthwick