Liquid smoke! The last week of March and the first week of April historically catch the windiest day of the year. As the local TV announcers would say, "Right here, in central Illinois.". It was wild. I was in survival mode on 4.0, 11:30 to 5:00 with max downhaul, outhaul. Wind was 220d to 230d direction. The deep channel is on the west side of the bridge pool, 210d to 220d would have been epic swell. The lake went insane from 4:30 to 5:00. I went out in it thinking it would back off a little around that time after a little break. It suckered me out and it let me barely get across the lake and then dropped the hammer. See pics and comments below. Water temp at F13 68F. Air temp hit 83F.

Bloomington: Peak sustained 38, gust 47 mph.
Champaign: Peak sustained 43, gust 56 mph.
Decatur: Peak sustained 39, gust 54 mph


Bloomington


Champaign


Decatur




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F13



Got texture?






This thing's making its own shadow.



Way up the lake it would turn white to let you know what's about to drop down and fill in.



Trying to find something less than 40 mph to get a jump in. It only let me do that early on.



Other side is shallower and the bank and trees are lower.



I see some liquid smoke out there.



Oh shit. Now I feel stuck over here..



The minute it drops I gotta go for it.



Not easy to get up. Jump in the straps and hook-in before I'm really on plane. I look up wind and see the biggest liquid smoke of the day. Tall as the trees and looks like an unorganized dust devil. It erupted right where the swim beach pool meets the start of the bridge pool - squeezing down the gauntlet. I thought don't stop now, maybe you can out run it and get across.



Right in the middle of the lake. This is what I didn't want to happen. Sitting on the sail wide open with all my strength and weight it still rounded me up. My sail just wanted to get out of the way.



The wind said, bow down when I come to your town.



I wasn't sure I was going to be able to waterstart. It would be an ugly swim. It could easy yank my gear from me.




It took all the strength I had to get up and hang on and fight the rounding up.



It got a little easier as I got out of the middle.



Made it to the cove. There were times when a set would rap completely around and lap up on the beach. At this time the horizon was really dusty. It look like a driving hazard was coming on. Looking NE past the bridge there was a huge dust cloud. Some field was going off. Driving back on route 10 a cop was blocking route 48 so folks couldn't turn north there. You could see the field making so must dust you couldn't see across route 48. 'till next time.




16 of the day's 29 photos

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