4/13/06 DC Sailboat Beach 6.7 109 lts

[John Freed]

After reading Sara's post about warm clean water, bikinis, nudes, etc... it's a little tough but for the most part DC has clean water... it's just not very warm yet nor did I see anyone in a speedo or a bikini (there were some fisherman in sweatshirts however)... Took a lunch break at DC today (about 1:00)... very little wind at Island Beach, drove up to Sailboat... fairly gusty, but good strong gust were starting to come through, rigged a 6.7 and planed about half the time... made it up to the buoy near the damn about 2:00, and enjoyed an hour of almost non-stop wound up riding! Very nice, but still awful gusty. Left at 3:00... still looking good at Sailboat, but not looking very good at Island.

[JimSouthwick]

I didn't see any bikinis either. The wind started very early, peaking with a 34 MPH gust at 10. EXTREMELY gusty (hey, it's DC we're talking about, right?) I, too, checked out the Island, and decided it look unrideable. But instead of going to SBB, I decided to check out the Bridge. The wind there seemed considerably more consistent. The tops of the bushes are still showing, but I had no problems with fin clearance. My 4.5 worked in the biggest gusts, but wasn't quit enough the rest of the time. Re-rigged up to a 5.3, and rode very powered-up from about 11 to 12:30.