It was Friday, and Lisa was able to exit her place of employment at 3pm. We were planning to go to Canada for south wind on Lake Erie, but the forecast just didn't look right to me for that location. Seneca Lake had been blowing since 12noon and the forecast looked epic for the evening, but it is an hour and forty-five minute drive. Hmmm...what to do?
It really was an easy decision. Wind rules! We got in the van at 3:35pm and arrived at Seneca by 5:30pm. Sunset was 7:28pm, so no time to mess around. We immediately rigged 3.3m for me and 2.9m for Lisa. The sails were way too big, but we don't own anything smaller. If I took the 2.9m then Lisa doesn't get to ride, so we downhauled the crap out of them both and away we went.
It was blowing 40-45mph. After two reaches I dropped in the water to add more outhaul to my sail as I was so over-powered that I could barely ride. The wind was so strong that I could barely get into the harness because the harness lines were blowing away from me. As I floated in the water adjusting my outhaul I could see Issac screaming toward me. I figured he was probably checking to make sure I was ok, so I gave him the 'thumbs up' indicating that I was fine. He beared off wind about 10 feet away from me on my downwind side, and as he was directly in front of me a ramp popped up in front of him which he hit at FULL speed. I looked up into the sky on my downwind side as I floated in the water, and all I saw was the bottom of Issac's board and the sky. UP, UP, and AWAY! It was an amazing view of him soaring through the sky. I have not been able to get the image out of my head....board, sail, sailor, and sky!
As it turned out, Issac was a little over-powered also, and he blew out nearly an entire window on his sail shortly after his epic flight. It was probably for the best since he now had a sail about one meter smaller that was more suited to the conditions....LOL.
An incredible session with perfect conditions! Really could not have been any better. Just awesome!
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