Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 74.

SaliFlow




SaliFlow




Clinton Lake Forecast




Looks like a good day for The Road. NW-NNW wind in the 5.8 to 4.7 range. Water temp at the coldest spot almost hit 80 F two days ago. Who's with me? There's also a Thursday 6/13 thread to check out.

Going to sail tomorrow, guess the road is the place. I’m going to wear my lucky hat, any takers? Don’t think there will be too much light wind slogging going on though.

The wind is picking up in Bloomington already. I’ll be getting down there early to make a day of it. Ady, are you driving down?

Leave some wind for me. I’m coming after all but I’ll be late 12:30 at best.

Fun day at The Road. I got on the water around 8:30 am. Lit 4.7 with 95 L FSW. It was nasty. The wind was 340 degrees NNW when 315 degrees NW is ideal. Streaky gusts and nasty cross chop. Chris made it out and was making a 4.2 work in the puffs. Then it looked like the wind was backing off and with that 340 direction I was ready to pack it in around 12:00. Then Ady surprised us. And stepped out with his lucky hat on. And sure enough the wind started to come back and shift for the better to 320 degrees. At one point wavering between 310 and 330. Still puffy though. Raced around with Ady on his 5.2 and 94 L freewave. At one point Ady had had enough of the puffiness and rigged a 5.7 with his 110 Atom IQ. And I got the race around with him on my 4.7. Let me tell ya, this boy can hold down some sail. There was a late afternoon boost - 3:00 to 4:30 - when the sun's out all day heating the land and then air temp starts to cool. I got plenty of rippin' rides and got off the water around 4:00 pm. Thanks for taking some phone pics Chris. Side note: it's nice to know that the Power Jibe Pub security kitty has his own shed with motion light, chair and bed, and a little work study where he keeps track of unpaid tabs.


Bloomington



Champaign



Decatur




Clinton Lake 2019 Photo Album


Ady (5.2 sail) and Me (4,7 sail) (phone pic by Chris)



Ady (5.2 sail) (phone pic by Chris)



Me (4.7 sail) (phone pic by Chris)



Me (4.7 sail) (phone pic by Chris){/b]



Ady (5.2 sail) Rippin' a duck jibe. (phone pic by Chris)





Clinton Lake 2019 Photo Album

Sailed both my 93 and 98 ltr boards with 4.2 and 4.7 respectively. Had a good time, only sailed two sessions since my ankle isn’t 100%. Was hard to resist the jump but managed to hold back. Ady, thanks for the hat! Sorry I couldn’t stay to join you guys at the pub, next time.

Huh, finally got some time to post my take on the Monday’s adventure. I actually didn’t intend to sail that day because it’s hard for me to skip work on Mondays. I started early as usual and did a couple of trips in the terrible O’Hare airport traffic, but the thought that I’m missing on a good day of sailing didn’t leave me the whole time. I dropped the second costumer in T1 and realizing that it’s slowing down I decided that I have enough of Monday misery and asked for permission to leave. Permission was granted and off to Clinton with a quick stop at home to change clothes and load up the gear. By the time I got to the Road it was 12:30 already and Reid and Chris were fixing to go home, but then graciously stayed because of me.
As Reid explained above the conditions were kinda weird, the wind has been super gusty to begin with and then the insufficient western angle added to the general mess, so it was on and off all the time. Reid was on his 95/4.7 but Chris advised me to rig bigger-5.2 or even 5.7 if I dare. I settled for the 94/5.2 and once on the water started quickly realizing the point for rigging big. It was too much work slogging on a small board in nasty chop and one hour later more or less I decided to go radical and switch to the 110/5.7 combo. That was a lot less labor and although the 74 cm might seem like a bad idea for chop and 35 mph gusts it actually is not difficult to keep it under control, because the Atom doesn’t exhibit any, absolutely no nose lift, zero. I think its the low thickness that keeps the board down even in overpowered conditions and the lift is only from the windward side which is easy to counter with weighing down the rail by just taking a lower stance. My 5.7 rig is a bit of a letdown unfortunately with the 5 batten Revo not as stable as the racy Retro and the mast that I’m stuck with too soft and easily overpowered compared to a Nolimitz Sumo that I wish I had. As a consequence of the softish rig I had to push once in a while hard with my front arm to keep it from collapsing it’s geometry completely and stalling me. A 5.5 or even a 6.5 Retro supported by a stiff spine like the Sumo mast would have been a much better fit for the board. Couldn’t extract a whole lot of pictures since I didn’t bother to replace the battery and my Flymount is stuck hopelessly so I can use it only on one side of the mast and nowhere else.


The beautiful landscape of the home across the road from the launch complete with real palm trees




Swiping Reid. Me 94/52, he 95/4.7




The Duck jibe that Chris posted above which ended embarrassingly






A carve jibe that I didn’t crash







Switching to the 5.7/110. I told Reid after we came in that this run is probably the fastest that I ever had, but as usual on the edge of control it seems a lot faster then it really is - a pathetic 28 mph only



Buzzing Reid, who hopped for more pictures but I disappoint as usual



Carving



Carving but forgetting to flip the rig and getting launched as a consequence



Ducking the 5.7






Till next time