OMG, we had the biggest storm of the year here in Singas this afternoon.
Naturally I was out on my new formula board and 9.8m V8, in very little wind, hoping to at least get planing, when the $h!t hit the fan...idiot!!!! After the first run I could see the meanest looking clouds building all around...the sky had turned dark grey and these wispy white cotton-wool b@$tard$ were flitting about like something out of the Twilight Zone..."Ah, it'll probably peak at 12-13 knots or so", I thunk to meself, and kept sailing...
WOOOOOAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Big respect to the guys who had kept 4.5s and 5.0s fully rigged on standby for months and months waiting for just this one storm...truly their devotion paid off in spades today! 30 mins later and it was safe to venture out on 7m to 8m; 15 mins later it was dead...gotta love the Singapore wind...
Aren't people there scared of getting hit by lightning or are they not thunderstorms?
I've been reading a kiteboarding safety forum and one of their big tips is never sail when a storm is coming or has arrived.
Elmo, I headed back in, made adjustments and tried to relaunch...but couldn't manage a beachstart with the formula gear in that wind!! (A fellow formula sailor turned up 2 hours later, carrying his gear, battered and bloody!) So, I went for my 8.5 Ezzy freeeride and 130 litre freeride board, but that was hopeless also. Crashed and burned, couldn't waterstart, couldn't sail, couldn't do jack $h!t. After the storm had peaked, I got a few good runs in, though.
If only I'd had something smaller on standby, but you get tired of rigging and putting away 3 sails every single day just in case of a storm like this...
BTW if there's thunder or lightning of course we avoid it; a girl got struck by lightning last year and it was nasty; we ain't superheroes. But it's usually just wind, often followed by rain...and beers...
hello wetty we call it here "squall sailing" kinda like 15mins. of glory..i do lot's of that during the off season when it's mostly rainy, nice thing about squalls they come in and you could feel the wind build up by the minute but i try to do it close to shore cuz when it suddenly disappears it's the doldrums
but fun
I've been out in that kind of madness. Take a look at this chart:
www.peconicpuffin.com/the_peconic_puffin/2008/07/winds-eight-gusting-to-fifty-five.html
8 gusting to 55!
