Dealing With Offshore Wind Shifts was Yesterday?!

[ricki]

This deals with a chunk of the SE coast but in some ways extends to the rest of the state. Did folks grab some of that wind that came through yesterday afternoon?

From the forecast I had more or less blown off kiting this weekend. It was to blow lightly and offshore after all. I even planned on some scooter diving in all that extended west wind to use the improved visibility.

Went to free dive the wreck of the Rodeo in 130 ft. of water in some pretty strong current and limited viz. Still it was fun and the scooter delivered as usual. video to follow in "Something Rich and Strange ... ". Made shore and noticed all these whipping flags, what?! Shot up the coast to Delray, rigged up and would swear I was unusually well powered at times on a 13 m. All in the same day, yeeha!

This wind wasn't forecast in the first place and yet I wondered early on about the wind clocking offshore at some point and promptly forgot about this possibility. Well it did just that around 5 pm and very suddenly. I saw a kiter out with his kite on the water drifting north for sometime towards the guarded beach. He wasn't able to relaunch. So I ran downwind fast and came up to help him relaunch or try to find his board which was out of sight at this point. All though well intended my help was fairly inept this time, whoops! Aside from getting too close, I failed to notice the wind clocking to blow side offshore while I was with him, too distracted. We both ended up towing kites into shore. In my case about a mile north, I always try to land on the far side of the guarded area if I don't have enough wind to make it back to the launch.

Moral, stay aware no matter what you are trying to deal with, and is this place great or what? Intriguing flat water diving and a nice wind session all in the same day.