Brush with Bonnie

Tropical storm Bonnie was pretty mellow as far as tropical storms go, but it brought some fun windsurfing conditions to Fort Pierce, Florida yesterday. I caught a session in the morning when the wind was from the Northeast. It was averaging 20-25 mph, but there were some serious ups and down associated with squalls passing through, as you can see in the wind record from the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant, about 10 miles South of where I was riding.



A bunch of kiters were out but I was the only guy windsurfing. I used my small 83 liter waveboard and a 5.5 sail rigged with plenty of downhaul. I would have preferred a smaller sail in the puffs, but the 5.5 handled them ok and was nice to have in the lulls. I wasn't quite feeling my sea legs so I didn't try any big jumps or tricks, but the scary looking clouds and rain and a leaping shark added a bit of drama to the helmet camera video. The music is "My Electric Eye" by the Chemical Brothers.

Windsurfing Wind from TS Bonnie from James Douglass on Vimeo.