As they say, good things come to those who wait. We drove an hour through the rain up north to Ephraim in Door County and after a big of checking, we headed to Eagle Bluff point in the state park. A place I've not sailed since I was 16 or so.
The point was taking some amazing waves, but early in the sesh, you didn't wanna get caught inside as the wind was picking off the water to get over the bluff onshore. 30 minutes into the sesh, the wind jacked, and so did the waves. Mike and I sailed over to the island to add some downhaul since there was no way to make it back to the rocky beach where we had launched from. We had other options for when we had to make it back, but for now, we were gonna stay out and tear it up.
We'd been sailing for 2 hours now, and the waves were head to logo high with the occasional mast high set. Our 5.3's were WAAAY too big, but since returning to rig down wasn't an option, we stayed out. Its about this time that some friends of ours finally made it out to us on their small kites having launched from another protected cove.
The waves were super meaty - lots of pitching and pounding with very little room for error as if you went down, you'd be on the rocks in no time at all. I got hammered by a medium sized one and barely, BARELY made it out of there. Way sketchy, but worth it.
We packed it out just before sunset and I enjoyed a little post sailing carnivore delight. 24oz of local prime rib (photo above) to feed my body for a job well done. ;-)
5 comments:
David,
Would have loved to see video of that session!
For those unfamiliar, the close spacing of the lake waves makes sailing waves, half that size, a "pleasure" suited only for really good sailors.
Me, I got my butt kicked on Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron), in waist high windswell/waves . . . and I'm glad I have no video to show of that!
So would I! With the waves that came up, we couldn't get back to the launch to get the cameras, etc. so we just sailed! It was ugly, meaty sailing, but tremendously fun. When you go down, you're down for the count with the wave spacing - and you're right, I think a lot of people don't realize how much more difficult Great Lake sailing is versus the ocean, etc. ;-)
Great write up. Man I'd love to come up there and sail with ya'll.maybe one of these days.
Now that's what I am talkin about. I was on the south end of the lake and it was also messy.
Cool post....
I shredded off of bradford beach in a head high swell on a 8.5, lighter wind in Milwaukee but still a big swell. Super fun swell. Hope to see you on the lake soon. Big Winds are coming.
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