Almost Did a Downwinder

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

It's tough trying to downwind on the Hudson. I live in this elbow joint of the river, where it makes three 90º turns in about four miles. It makes the paddling interesting but the wind is always wonky. As I've mentioned before, I've wanted to try a downwinder for a while, but it's really hard to line up wind direction, tides, and being available to do it. The Hudson basically flows north-south, but a north or south wind is relatively rare here. Most of the time there's a lot of west in it.

Yesterday the winds were westerly with some north about 10–25, so I figured I'd try a run south from When I live in Peekskill to Croton. There's a popular windsurfing/kayak launch which I used to sail from all the time called “Swamp Hole”. The distance, about 7 miles.

The problem was I'd have to round Indian Point, heading south west, before I'd be able to have the winds at my back. That's a little over a mile with 15 mph winds in my front quarter. The tide was with me, so that was good, but I'd also have to round the nuclear power plant with its no-go zone, and the winds were pushing me right into it. That was a crawl. I felt like I was inching forwards. Plus there was the chop and the 48º water.

Once I rounded the nuke, things got a lot better. The wind was on my right rear quarter and I got moving. Unfortunately I never really had a real downwind run. Since the wind and current were in the same direction the swells were pretty small. I got a couple of small rides, but that was it.

That said, it was a gorgeous spring run. My wife was tracking me with the “Find Friends” app on her iPhone. So when I got close t the launch I was greeted with cries of “Daddy!” from shore.

Maybe some day I'll do a real downwinder. Meanwhile, I'm still having fun and getting great workouts.

[Off-Shore]

I.S. That is awesome! Now you know you can do it safely, your confidence will come, and so does the bug... I feel that practicing in less than ideal downwind conditions will make it easier when I get into the real stuff (well that's what I tell myself). And as far as a workout, there is nothing IMHO better than downwinding in less than ideal conditions especially if it involves some upwind and cross-slop too. I can literally see the difference after a good session..

[PonoBill]

Careful. It's only slight more addictive than crack, but it's way more expensive.

[stoneaxe]

Sounds like you just had a decent CCBC training workout....

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

Probably so. It was more of a workout than I expected! Still hoping to catch that perfect session one day.

[SUPJorge]

Looks like you figured out that a "bad" day DWing is still ... great!