Napeague Bay is the flatwater capital of Long Island windsurfing (though Mecox is a respectable second), but lately I've been wanting to join the sailors who head up to the northern shore, portage across, and hit the waters of Gardiners Bay, where it was said "it gets really big and really good" in a solid northerly (not to mention getting to sail in sight of Gardiners Island, where Captain Kidd once buried pirate treasure!)
I'd sailed it before, but never like this. Winds NNE 25 were sending gangs of rolling swell tightly spaced towards shore. It was side-on wave sailing with 10 yards between each wave...outbound it was all I could do to find a path, then a tight jibe squeezed in between eye-high gray walls of water, and now shooting back downhill, either blasting between swell, surfing up and down them, or catching air off of some major ramps (I got considerable height, but as John V said "they don't count unless you land them." My big ones didn't count. At least a half dozen sailors were doing better than me, including John, Jan, Bruce, Frank, Jonathan, and Fisherman.
Beyond the excitement of windsurfing in such conditions, I was in awe of how extraordinary the water looked. Everything was gray and stormy, and the waves seemed like they were marching in a giant army. I thought it looked like some painting of the North Sea on a bad day. I tried to take photos while sailing in the big water, but it was out of the question...it was all I could do to stay on the board.
If you've been there and done that at Gardiners, all I can say is "It was new to me." It was a spectacular thing to see, much less sail in. I am so very much going back for the next nor'easter!
(photo: John V flashes some old-school style on the inside at Gardiners.)
I could do with some of those conditions right now!
Posted by: Bunty | May 21, 2007 at 03:18 AM