Eastern Shore Ice Storm

Woke up to a one inch coating of ice on, well, on everything. Travel is extremely hazardous. So we went sledding!



Gotta get my van cleaned off. We have a good forecast for Saturday.

For those of you who aren't aware, freezing rain is a type of precipitation associated with a temperature inversion air mass in cold climates. It is described as precipitation that begins as snow at higher altitude, falling from a cloud towards earth, melts completely on its way down while passing through a layer of air above freezing temperature, and then encounters a layer below freezing at a lower level to become super cooled. This water will then freeze upon impact with any object it encounters, namely roads, cars, sidewalks, power lines, etc.


When the ice builds up, the weight on the power lines often causes them to come down, and neighborhoods frequently lose power. Good thing we heat our home with a wood stove huh. Our streets is pretty slick

Where is the rock salt?

On the positive side, it doesn't take much for the ice to begin to break up. The eastern side of the Chesapeake was already thawing this weekend. Here is Terrapin Park (photo taken this past Sunday morning), and despite the storm yesterday and today, my sense is that the ice will continue to thaw out there.

In fact, there is absolutely no ice on the western side. Here is Sandy Point.

Ice is breaking up in Kent Narrrows as well.



Niko Iampieri from an epic session we scored back in October



Ken Kellar from a fun Assateague session back in June






BTW, Have you seen Giampalo's latest video of wavesailing at Kanaha? It literally brings tears to my eyes.

Lewes, Deleware-The Main Beach

Today Janis and I drove down to check out Lewes. It's about 15 minutes south of our place in Milford, DE.

I launched on an outgoing tide, with the wind running against it. Made for lots of floaty port jumps!





Fully powered 5.8. Kudos to The Avon Sailhouse for repairing the sail for me, the victim of a bad forward loop attempt during an Assateague sesh back in August. It felt like new today! If anyone needs sail repair, Olaf does great work.



I'm telling you it was warm! about 45 degrees, and after over a week with temps in the 20s, today felt like spring! The water temp was about 35 degrees. If you can minimize your time actually in the water and sail smart, it really is a peice of cake to sail cold water. Especially with the sun beaming like it did for a majority of the day.





No ice at all on the Deleware Bay. Rehoboth Bay is another story. (this photo by Bob Rammsey)

Floaty board and a 5.8 was perfect kit today


I took Andy's advice and put vaselene on the only exposed skin, my face. Makes a world of difference. Thanks for the tip pal.


First run out. Haven't been on the water since Jan 3rd

Lots of bottled up energy.



The sand bar started to break a tiny wave, that was fun to play on
















It doesn't look like much I know, but this sand bar is so much fun to play on!








Again, I practiced sailing out of my gybes clew first. I think thats helpful in wavesailing.


Bad form I know but I actually pulled this off.

Tack







Gybing on the outside for another screaming reach back to the beach

Nice back side rides
















Cape May Ferry in backgorund


Wrap up to an awesome day of winter time sailing on the Delmarva.


I sailed from about 11am till about 1.30, or four sessions of approx 30 minutes each. Like I said, it was very warm, and the temps weren’t an issue. My conditioning however is another story. My forearms fatigued big time today. In fact, I’m pretty sore tonight, the price for not sailing in almost three weeks. Its all good, spring is just around the corner!