We met at the pond. Three boats elected to stay right there. There was a heavy current, 25+ knot winds and some decent wind waves. One of the group who chose to stay was in a brand new fiberglass boat to get used to. Four of us headed for the western border of the sea wall. It seemed to take forever and an awful lot of work to get there. We rounded the sea wall into 8+ foot swells and some wind waves on top paddling along or just outside the reflective wave. There were some shouts of Yahoo and the like as we slid over the swells and surfed others.

We got to the end and surfed into the harbor. Three of us headed back along the outside of sea wall meeting two others at the western end. We played in the swell with surfing and bracing winding up back inside the break water to rest for few.

We continued this in-and-out of the breakwater into the open sea. This was not a beginners day--swells were high and quickly paced. The wind died a little for a while but the swell and current didn't. You could sit at the western end of the pond with paddle down and find yourself in the channel within minutes, or so it seemed.

After 3 hours we had enough; we headed in. I don't remember the last time I used my rudder in the harbor channel.

We landed, almost without incident (there always has to be somebody), cleaned up our gear and headed for Big Daddy-o's who survived the zoning crisis. We feasted on the great fare and talked about how we individually survived the 40 foot breaking waves and 50+ knot winds (are we beginning to sound like fisherman?). In reality, it was a good experience--the high swells, winds, wind waves and currents again gave us a change to practice the bracing and paddling techniques in the real sea.

Another good day--any day on the water beats any day at work!

    Mike Brown