Herb and I loaded up and headed to Oconto this morning with the prospect of blasting winds and blazing speeds. However, Mother Nature had something else in mind for us. Area showers put a damper on the winds and only gave us bursts of winds, and even then, nowhere near the forecasted 45 knots.
I was thankful I put the 6.6 and the 98 RRD in the truck, as those ended up being the tools of choice. While I didn't crack my personal best - and came nowhere near the 45 I was after, once I got tuned up after the first run I was hovering at 38mph ... cruising comfortably in the flats looking for any sort of gust that would propel me towards and over 40mph. But that didn't happen.
On the plus side, I am totally psyched about the possibilities of the Oconto waters for some high speed runs. South of the jetty is amazingly flat water with nothing ashore for 300-500 yards, so the wind is super clean. It continues this way for at least 2 miles .... plenty of time to put the hammer down when that gust arrives.
I'm also intrigued about the idea of blazing some runs INSIDE the jetty on a north or south wind. Essentially the track would be in the boat channel and aside from the possible no wake rule, this could also give way to serious speeds. But, not a lot of room for error if things go bad.
After 4.5 hours of time, about 40 minutes of it was spent actually sailing and no outstanding speeds, I'm still smiling.
Next time.... next time. ;-)
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