Tonight was the last night of practice before my annual pilgrimage to the Columbia River Gorge... today saw a max flood of 2.8 knots at 2:40 pm, going to slack at around 6:00 pm and onto max ebb of 3 knots at 8:30 pm. I was in the water at 4:15 pm and it was definitely already starting to turn along the shoreline, with no apparent advantage to being on the shore versus 100 yards or so out. We did have a nice breeze tonight:
Even more impressive were the waves that were building along with the ebb, they were huge by City Front standard and made for some fantastic downwind runs. Its really an amazing feeling when you're hiking out of the back of the cockpit flying down the steep front of a wave looking for a place to put the bow that won't end up being 3' under water (see
this video for an example of how that can end) - and then you find the perfect escape!
Anyway, because I needed to pack up for tomorrow's trip north I was back on the dock at 6:00 pm... wishing I was still out on the water...
The trip north is to participate in the US Sailing Singlehanded Championship (the O'Day trophy). This is meant to be a nice test event in a windy venue against some really top competition. Of course, the real truth is that all Lasers sailors MUST sail in the Gorge at least once each Summer and this is my opportunity!
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