Monday, 9.18 Island Beach

[Carl Christensen]

Pretty much as advertised. After @ 40F degrees of warming and with a falling barometer it was bound to happen. I left the house just before 4 with Jim's windtalker reading about 1mph, that's a bit of a leap of faith, but when the lake appeared off in the distance it was immediately clear that the breeze was in the house. Oh yeah. Didn't have to go to Sailboat Beach.

The water is warm, still in board shorts but not for long, and the water has settled so you can see your feet walking on the bottom on the way out.

On the water it was non-stop planing with smooth wind, small fast chop, and so many fish. There were many reaches when it seemed like at least one would jump on each ride, sometimes two and once or twice 3 medium lunkers would huck big. It wasn't exactly the schools of flying fish careening off your sail like offshore on Maui but a lot more than ever. And they weren't the slow moving carp like we used to see at UL, they are quick, shiny mountain lake trout and such.

By the way, what has happened to the carp at Utah Lake? They haven't been nearly as noticeable this year. It seems like a while since I've thudded into anything down there. Has the park service been making good on their promise to thin the herd? Alright by me but how do they do it?

Knowing the only thing keeping it warm was the September sun made me head in just before our mid sized ball of gravity induced nuclear fusion rotated below the ridge. But then the wind was still good so another reach was in order, and another, and, oh heck, another.

Time was running out when I hit the beach. The shadow line was about 30 yards from my sail when it was finally laid to rest on the grass in front of the trusty grand voyager. Obviously that meant that within 1 minute the sun was gone for good but the breeze remained warm for derigging. As my gear devolved into little bits and pieces of carbon, aluminum and mylar a white van drove by from the south end of the lake, honking a hello. Let's see, who could that have been?

[JimSouthwick]

One of these days I'm going to learn that if it's blowing at all, it's worth a look; I tend to wait until I'm seeing more readings above 10 MPH than below, and I'm clearly missing a lot of good "Formula" days as a result.

http://utahwindriders.org/phpBB2/album.php?user_id=79

[DimitriMilovich]

Hey, you were planing from I figure about 5:15 on, and so were Erik and Sarah from about 5:00 on. Pretty late day for DC. Erik was on a 9.2. What were you on?

[Carl Christensen]

yeah, pretty late. this isn't summer, it's fall. gotta give it time to warm up and lift. the good news is, there isn't enough heating to generate those pesky thermal sapping thundercells anymore. plus, you can get a good work day in before you even think about going and well before you head out. there will be a few more before it's over. hope they fit our work schedules.

[Carl Christensen]

ps, formula gear was the call. i've pm'd you with the some of the grizzley details.