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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:30 am Post subject: Things have CHANGED! |
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SwellHatch has swell shore to shore, yet on a midsummer morning, more than an hour and a half past Dawn Patrol time, I don't see one car in the lot or one person on the water. Maybe there's hope for the place yet. |
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surfersteve
Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 203
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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Echoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Just joking. Rig very small. |
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CUSalin
Joined: 11 Mar 2001 Posts: 405 Location: Hood River, OR
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:06 am Post subject: |
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I think it's just been so windy..., for so many days in a row that nobody is in any big hurry to get out there _________________ CU Sailin' |
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jota
Joined: 28 Feb 2001 Posts: 205
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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That, and also kiting converts have taken some pressure off the WS sites.
On July 5 at 10 am (!) I was the very first car to park at my favorite corridor spot - already full-on 3.7 conditions and had been for some time. Of course, July 4th had been a great day and folks were nursing their wounds - and hang-overs.
The lack of crowds on the water is great - unless you sail right off the point at the hatch . . . and I did cycle through there quite a bit yesterday and even that wasn't bad.
Then you see the line of parked cars at the Underwood sand bar . . . |
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joew
Joined: 18 Jul 1999 Posts: 156
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Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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Dawn patrol has been very lonely this summer, for all of the aforementioned reasons and it has been sailable in the corridor every day in July but 2.5 days. It is kinda cold and lonely at the hatch, at the point in the early AM, down in the middle launch, the Kaffe Klatch is present staking out their favorite Parking spots, I mean name on the tree favorite spots, very territorial that. The launch and rig is a little warmer and less wind blasted, then the point early AM, which probably explains same. |
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wmike
Joined: 20 Jan 2001 Posts: 207 Location: Maui
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Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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joew wrote: | the Kaffe Klatch is present staking out their favorite Parking spots, I mean name on the tree favorite spots, very territorial that. |
Nicely said joew, They arrive very early, park their RVs and go back to bed. Seem to remember ISOBARS did that also. BTW, I arrived today at 10 AM to amble parking in the shade.
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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whitesalmonmike wrote: | They arrive very early, park their RVs and go back to bed. Seem to remember ISOBARS did that also. |
Darn right ... but only if I expected wind, drove, and found none. Throughout the '90s, my routine was to wake up to my alarm in my van well before first light in Hood River and check the wind in the corridor and out east. If there was good wind anywhere, I stepped from my bed to the driver’s seat and drove away within 3-4 minutes and was parked at the Hatch as the eastern sky first glowed or out east shortly after sunrise.
Why? Zero crowds, steady wind, more swell, less chop, less heat, incredible visibility and scenery on a reach at dawn, and the most fundamental reason of all: there was wind, water, and light, so little else mattered. There's something ethereal about sailing the entire Hatchery area in great wind and swell with 0 to 5 other sailors in sight on a warm summer morning, especially before sunrise. Bonus: I sometimes got Doug's, Rufus, or Roosevelt literally or virtually alone until nearly noon on some midsummer days on a 3.2 to 4.2, because everyone went to the corridor first. I will never forget the days I stopped midriver at Rufus and just stared in awe as the rising red sun set Mount Hood on fire straight down the center of the river, with no one on the water but me east of the Maryhill Bridge.The primary obstacle to going out east was fatigue; after several successive days of this I could not safely drive that far.
If I arrived to no wind, or when the crowds arrived to constipate the river, I'd eat breakfast, my biggest meal of the day for many decades now. Then, if no wind, darn right I'd go to sleep. After all, I had very often sailed until at least sunset and gotten to bed near midnight the previous night, wind permitting. I’d say I had earned that sleep, as I never got caught up until we had a few days without wind somewhere between Newport Beach, Clatskenie, and Arlington. This had nothing to do with homesteading, everything to do with rigging/sailing/eating every windy daylight moment simply because there were always calm days on which to rest.
There have been too many of the latter the last couple of years, until this month. |
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joew
Joined: 18 Jul 1999 Posts: 156
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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WHEW!!! After reading that it's like "could ya please pass the advil." Iso you are a true living, breathing, windsurfing ummm fanatic. May the stoke continue to be with you when you return to full mobility. I meant no disrespect to the RV homesteaders, only found it amusing how posessive about " this one spot under this or that tree, next to this or that person that I always park next to every day" I suppose if I was spending the summer in one of those contraptions I'd be there also, can't beat the view. |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the stoke remains, but the body began slowing down 5 years ago in my mid 60s. I still sail way past sunset, but have to take rest breaks now if it blows all day. As for returning to full mobility, that may not be in the cards. They can replace ACLs, but menisces can be a different story. We shall see. |
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