Hurricane Sandy brought us some nice NE and NNE winds at Rocky Pt Beach side. Fred, Craig, Mark Raginsky, Chris Wattengel, Paul Cudone and I all enjoyed the NNE 20 to 29 mph winds on Sunday October 28th as Sandy was approaching. We started out on 5.0 to 5.3 sails and had some really good runs out to a little sandy point off of Hart-Miller Island. Fred was kiting with his 12 Meter kite, then came in and rigged his 4.7 as the wind was building. He and I sailed our 78 and 84 liter boards for an hour or so on the 4.7’s.
Less than a week later, on Friday November 2nd, we had some nice Northwest wind at the Rocky Point Golf Course sailing site. So I put out my usual sailing notice on Thursday evening and got a few replies, but ONLY Fred and I sailed! What’s happening to our usual group of Rocky Pt sailors? Are they turning into warm weather only sailors? Anyway, that was another good day, with two hours of 6.2/5.9 sailing on 92/95 liter boards followed by an hour of blasting on my 5.3 with the 95 liter Fanatic Ray. I got some excellent speed runs with the 5.3, max of 30.97 knots (35.56 mph) on a run towards the eastern shore of the river (the launch side). Flat conditions with really good winds after 3:00 were classic Rocky Pt sailing.
We have historically had some wind over the Thanksgiving break, so dust off your cold weather gear and get ready for some serious sailing. Still plenty of time to enter your GPS speeds in the BABA 2012 Speedquest, just send me your files by Dec. 31, 2012. All BABA members can enter with no fee, just email me your GPS tracks at fitz@qis.net. Roger Fitzgerald
