Chasing some freak wind. Looks good for Peninsula all the way to sunset.

Freak wind at 11:00 PM


I'm going for it! Another rider already there.

I missed it. I needed to be out there rigged and ready at 9:00 AM. That would of made for a nice 3 hour sesh. We noticed this last year, where there were a lot of days that peaked with the initial heating of the day. Or maybe the cooler morning wind can stay closer to the ground. Looking at the graphs you would think a guy could at least 5.8 with the 108 in the afternoon. This was not the case on this strange east wind day. Still had fun hanging out on a beautiful day.


Bloomington



Decatur



What's it look like? It is what it is.



At least we know how to arrive in style.



With my mind on my money....



...and my money on my mind.

Sorry you missed the wind. What's the temperature of the lake down there? That picture of the power plant in the background you have kind of makes me chuckle. Only because I used to work at Dresden Power Plant for about 7 years as an Instrument Tech. I googled the lake and can see the intake for the plant and where it exits back out into the lake. Is the lake fairly deep and how toasty does it ever get? I boated at Lake Shelby once and the time I was there I think it had to be a good 85 degrees and there's no power plant tied to it. The beer was the only thing that had a chance to cool you off.

The water temp on the West Side is around 60 right now. You can add 10 degrees to that at The Bridge launches. Go to the "Launches" page (top menu) then use the lakes and launches menu on the left of that page to view launches.


Clinton Lake, IL videos by Kevin Radley

I forsake it for Saturday, but it doesn't look any better either. Don't you miss some kind of a light wind board.?

Yep, I could of used my O'brien Sensation yesterday. I cried myself to sleep last night over her. Way back when I would lock it to the catamaran stake and hide the sail in the woods fully rigged. For a full season folks couldn't figure out how I would just show up and get on the water so fast. Clinton Lake was a wild boaty scene back in the late 80s.

A photo of an O'brien Sensation

Aah, the good ol' times ! My own first kit consisted of a Tiga Renegade like the one in this picture I've found online and a ~6m Fanatic sail, don't remember what the mast and the boom looked like. I didnt have a harness and was happy to be able to take it to the beach 4-5 times a year. I don't miss those years .


Nothing beats the glide of a 3.7 m classic racing longboard for light wind, but I wouldn't deal with such a huge thing without a waterfront property. Still there are many good choices for 10-20mph wind amongst the today's short/wide variety that work without huge sails IMO.