At 5:00 a.m., I started to prepare for departure, because the wind became weak a little. A temperature in the tent was 48 Fahrenheit.
I spent 5 hours preparing for the departure, and then put the kayak out into the river before 10:00 a.m. But, It was difficult to move downstream against an about 25 Mile/Hour strong headwind.
The sail swelled with the strong wind, and was tensioned tightly. An aluminum pipe mast which spread out a sail was bent. A leeward side of a cockpit lowered under water since the kayak heeled greatly by the wind filling the sail, and then water infiltrated into the kayak through a gap between a spray skirt and a cockpit. An outrigger, which resist to heel, half sank down into water. I felt a chill of fear a few times that the kayak might roll upside down.
Although I intended to head to the direction of the water flow, I was able to move only in the direction of river width due to the headwind which pushed the kayak back. I thought that about 25 Mile/Hour wind speed exceeded the performance limit of this kayak to move in the opposite direction of the wind, because I was able to move in the direction to downstream for just about 160 feet for 10 minutes. So, I gave up today’s kayaking and returned to the shore.
A feeling of good fellowship was developing between me and windsurfers spontaneously in here Roosevelt Park. Although the kayak and the windsurfing were completely different things, we spent several nights in a camper, a standard-sized car or a tent, read the wind, waited the wind and fought with the wind, in the same fashion. We, Cary, Roger, John Whaley and me, toasted with bottle beers, which were sipped and then were added limes and tequila in a style of windsurfers from Baja California, for that I was the today’s first person to ride the wind.