[ricki]

A downwinder this time of year, go figure? Glad it was a good one. I did a short one myself this afternoon. I noticed the wind come up while out. Rushed home to check the radar as the cummulo stack was marching towards the ocean from the Glades. By the time I was home it looked like Delray and points north were getting pounded. The radar confirmed this and suggested that if I headed south I might be able to buy more time before the heavy stuff hit the coast if ever. Sometimes it dissapates west of the ICW, not this time though. I headed out south of Boca Inlet and boogied south fast to try to buy more time. I could see some intense shelf clouds several miles inland. I did several tacks and managed to make it about a 1 1/2 miles upwind. At that point some really black, gray, green surreal looking shelf clouds, mammatus and evil stuff were moving a bit too close for comfort. They were still several miles inland but you never know. I beached and landed to walk back. The wind died after a while, but not for long. After about 1/2 hour it shifted to NW from SE originally. It didn't go that high perhaps 35 mph+ although from the look of the clouds it could have spiked 70 mph+ complete with tornados.

I had an interesting sight as I walked back upwind. An expensive catamaran waited by the inlet until the storm was on it before meandering south. The guy put up a black spinnaker complete with skull & crossbones, for real. I'm thinking shredded spinnaker, demasted cat or capsized! Why would you rig the largest sail you have with an obvious violent storm with wacked out gusts and reversals about 10 minutes away? The wind wasn't as severe as it might have been so luck carried the day this time.