A WSW Jibeathon

The wind yesterday north of Greensboro started SSW and was predicted to go NW by afternoon.  Luckily it clocked WSW and locked in for the duration!  For Belews lake this means a hike south in front of the plant to get out of the wind shadow of the 2 islands.  I took the hike and sailed 4 hours straight on the 106L/5.8 with a 32cm freewave fin (loose).  It was lake wind- gusty, some long lulls and squirrely at times but a fine time was had.  There was about a half hour, I'd estimate around 3 or so, where the wind picked up and filled in the entire span of the opening in front of the plant.  I made figure 8s with chop hops along the way with my heart rate pegging pretty high.  I wish we could get some of that on a weekend too.

Zoom in and you can see the white caps left and right of the island.

The Raleigh crew has their own forecaster so maybe their wind predictions and wind meters are solid.  The wind meters in the vicinity of Belews are not matching the lake much nowadays.  I know the leaves are still on the trees and that may be most of the issue but the low readings may be keeping folks away and missing some fun sailing.  The following are from Summerfield, Walnut Cove, Reidsville and the gso airport, resp.  It seems the airport matched the best yesterday.  Bottom line is DON'T MISS OUT!