CJW said...qwerty said...or more specifically...
Long Reef beach - 10 knots
1km out to sea from Long Reef - 20 knots
As much as I love the place, that part of it p1ssed me off year after year.
9th season living in the Gong now. Problem solved.
You reckon? Yesterday I went out at 330, was 25kts, swam gear back in at 4pm, <5kts. Went out at 415, 35kts, swam gear back in again 445pm. Looked at the Kurnell graphs, solid 30kts all arvo, Gerroa would have been the same!
Sometimes Wollongong, for whatever reason, suffers the same fate, 20kts 400m off the beach, nothing AT the beach...****s me. Has to be something to do with the escarpment being so close when the airstream has a bit more North in it.
Yes I certainly do reckon. You don't know how lucky you/we have it. You need to spend a season in Sydney (and no that can't include freestyle at Kurnell).
Also Mr Glass-Half-Empty, what others would read from your post is that you sailed for an hour; half of which was in 25knts, and the other half in 35knts. All while most of us were at work. I can hear the sound of violins playing on the Nth Beaches now.
While I know exactly the frustration you speak of when the wind does weird things like you described, it' still the small minority of NE days that do that.
Longy with wind is an awesome spot to sail. Perfect angle and gets good swell.
But it came to the point where you'd be planing off the beach once, maybe twice a year tops. As Larko said, it used to be very consistent, and there's been many threads devoted to theories as to why it no longer is (CBD too big? Not as many concrete backyards in Dee Why as there are in Kogarah? who knows?).
The Gong doesn't suffer anywhere near the same fate as the Nth Beaches. Majority of days blow what is says it will blow, and for every day where it shuts off like that, there's a day where it blows more than it predicts.
But regardless of that, I'll still be cursing the wind as much/more than you the next time it does that at home. I'm a local through and through.
