Tuesday???

[Mike W]

I would go to WBL if I thought it would be open, but my bet is that all of the ice will be blown against the shores of Ramsey and Rutherford. It shouldn't be long though.

[Hutch]

Hey Mike That huge area of open water south of the Hudson bridge is now filled with ice everything blew north. It is open at the boat launch and at Hudson beach. Not sure of the statis of North Hudson. If you don't find open water in North Hudson be sure to check out Idaho Chucks next to the Freedom station best food in Hudson. Hutch

[Geo]

Sailed out of St. Croix Beach (St. Mary's POint). Mostly OPEN all afternoon. Got there at 12:45, and sailed alone for about an hour powered on a 4.5. Jim, Diego, Kurt, Avery showed up and enjoyed up/down winds 25-40. The ice flows (Margaritas) creeped north (up river) with the wind. The first time it happened, I was on the opposite side of the river; uh, I guess I gotta beat that thing back to shore before I get stranded here for 20-30 minutes. The ice was really cool - 4-8" crystal spears about the size of pointy broccoli. Made a great tinkling sound when they crashed into the shore.

It was pretty full-on sometimes Avery on his 9, Kurt on an 11 Diego rigged a 4.1, Jim maybe a 4.9? I forgot what a shoulder workout it is between gusts hanging keeping a 74L board pointed the right way. Good water opener, though, especially for 32º water. Beautiful day.

[drknap]

yowza! full on survival kiting. Like Geoff said 20-40mph. Didn't have steady enough winds to allow one to get dialed in and feel comfortable for very long. none-the-less a successful water session. I got stranded out as well when a football field sized slab of margarita ice floated by-cool! Ice was sharp and Avery's leading edge suffered a slice-ouch!

[mdh01]

Today was one of those days where everything was lining up just right...work schedule, warm weather, clear skies, open water....but too much wind! For safety sake, decided to walk the dog instead...it was really wind here in southern MN! Small gusts to 40's, big gust hit 59mph, averaging 33...

Mark

[drknap]

awesome! who needs padre right?

[Mike W]

I drove over the bridge at noon to see lots of ice to the S. I assumed St. Mary's was iced in. The spots in N Hudson were iced in. I decided to kite the marina, and I was glad I did. It is a bit tricky solo launching a kite out of there, but once I got beyond that I had a great session. Some pretty decent rollers came through. My 11 was a bit much at times, but the wind was not much gustier than anywhere else around here. John and Randy J. were rigging gear when I left. Two sailboards were cruising on the N side of the jetty. Sorry I did not hook up with you, Geoff-- I could not figure out how to get my daughter's phone to turn on S winds in the marina are much better than N winds.

[ice_kmauve]

visited the Bear today,

IT WAS CRANKING LIKE A NUCULAR MISSLE EXPLOSION !!!
(reportedly it went up to 40+)

except there was only about 4 feet of open water at Rutherford and 50 feet at the Rammer.

Sooo.. we wait until the plum is ripe. I'm sure there will be other smokin' days coming up. And the sweet temps aren't going to hurt any neither. We went right from winter to summer.

Jim was apparently heading out to work the beach with his windsurfer on wheels. That Jim...!

[JRN]

Spring is here, Dave came out of hibernation! I was hoping for straight on shore wind so I could sail my land board along the beach, grass or parking lot. It was at a diagonal, so I was either out of control on a down wind tack, or fighting to get back up wind. It was fun climbing the hump from the sand onto the grass. Didn't have enough room to jibe, though.
Maybe today's lighter winds will provide a more pleasing experience. Glad you guys pulled it off at St. Mary's, I would have been praying to St. Mary out there. JRN