Winter Sailing

Usually I sail every month of the year but not this January! It was a month of storms. Of course, Central California storms aren’t really too serious but they were enough to keep me in port. The first photo shows the waves on the beach just north of Morro Rock. The town of Cayucos can be seen in the distance. If you look close in the center of the photo you can see a tiny surfer on one of the waves.
We often get winter swells of 20 to 25 feet so conditions like this are not unexpected in January. There is a 35 knot southeast wind blowing the tops off the breakers and this makes them look especially awesome.

When the swells are less than 10 feet it is safe to leave the harbor mouth. (Our harbor entrance is said to be dangerous but its really not so bad most of the time.) It isn’t cold if the sun is shining so why not get some practice in moderate wind?

Coming back (downwind) in 25 knots isn’t bad but I wouldn’t want to be going the other direction right now! Its hard to get a photo to really show the size of waves. These are 6 feet and whitecaps are everywhere. Fun!

Don’t get the impression that its always rough sailing here. Some mornings (in summer) its like a lake.