This winter in europe never seems to end....

This thread may be nothing for the "spoiled" California- and Florida catsailors. (For me, it seems heaven overthere)

We, in Holland, are harassed these whole winter with a Eastern icecold Russian wind which never seems to stop.
Right now at this moment of typing, there is a roaring wind between 8 and 9 Bft; already for three days around my house (I live at the top of a dune).
It's howling 24h inside the house and gives a windchill of -15 degrees C in an outside temp. of minus 3.

So cannot sail today.

Nevertheless, I've done my share of sailing this winter when the wind dropped to around 20 knots.
I wear a summer wetsuit of 2mm, covered with a 5 mm heatshield wetsuit and finally finished with a full drysuit.
Oh yeah, and topped with a windbreaker jack.

The last layer I have to put on outside the house, because otherwise I get a heat-stowing.

Main problem though, is still the cold-protection of my hands. I'm still waiting after 35 years on the perfect solution for that. Tried everything, ended up with a very large box full of handgloves bought in the years.

Found this on internet:




Too bad that this is a shed-invention which again will not work in my practice.

Any experiences??????

Ah Ronald! My wife and I are currently discussing turning on the air conditioner, 75 degrees F. but a little muggy.

We do get violent thunderstorms with dangerous lightening and extreme wind gusts (enough to blow you over backward if you aren't careful) and of course the occassional hurricane.

But here, "experiences" are of the self inflicted type.

Cheers!

You make me jealous, Pete.

Hurricanes, lighting, etc seem to last only one day?????????

But these low temperatures can keep me ashore for weeks (or even months)!

Hardtimes for a northsea junkie like me.

I know exactly what you mean! The whole winter we've been working on our boat and wating for temperatures above 5C (my absolute minimum) with a nice wind. Yesterday we're at the beach and it was realy horrible. 8 bft with 0C made it extremely cold, so also no work on the boat at the beach.

By the way if this winter continious, our Inter 18 will be converted in an Infusion before the summer! This way we keep on improving the boat instead of sailing...(I belive the cat is more than ready for sailing)

Well, lightening can be forever...

Snow still on the front lawn, floe ice in the launch area,but we are seeing plus Celsius temps and everything is starting to melt real quick.Lots of snow on the local ski hill,

I can attest to this winter in the EU. We landed in Amsterdam to freezing temps and below zero wind included temps as we worked on the trailer to head to Palma. We left and it started snowing in Antwerp. I mean, not litle speckle snow, explode on the highway drops that swirled on the pavement ahead of us. All the Dutchies were complaining about the weather (like that's something new) Now, here in Barcelona it's still a little chilly. Hopefully, the little island will be manageable tomorrow as we prep up for a couple weeks of sailing down here.

Really, I worked on the trailer, went inside to warm up, then worked on the trailer again for a few times.

I'm definitely not complaining, just agreeing with the prior statement. (I didn't watch the video).

Arjan, I found out that with good clothing (see above) and not too much wind (15-20 knots), I can sail even just under zero Celcius.

Problem remains the hands. So I mount everything up with my normal allday winter handgloves; which keep my hands warm till the last moment I start sailing.
Then I switch to my neopreen finger-clawed surf handgloves. They will keep my hands warm, atleast on broad reaches.

Closehauled, they will hold only max. 10 minutes before cold is coming in (more (sail)wind on the gloves).

When I stop sailing I always keep my hands out of the wind. When demounting my rigg again, I dry first my hands and then switch to my normal wintergloves again.

So, the trick is: not letting them to become cold.

With windsurfing though you can be rougher because you use your handmuscles more (giving heat).Then you can try the following:

Let them become cold, as cold as you can endure, start heating them up (with your breath etc.). This will be painfull too.
But then you have the chance that here after they (miraculously) will keep themselves warm the rest of the time you surf!


Dressing with so many layers as I use, has ofcourse the danger of overheating when mounting your cat and rigg.
So when you start to sweat, pull something off temporarily.

When I'm windsurfing in wintertime, the standaard question from spectators is: "Don't you have it cold sir".
My answer can be sometimes: "No, on the contrary,I'm sweating. Jee, I have to go in the water".
When I do this next, people think that I have a dig at them!

But they don't know about overheating in sporting.

Then it is the end of times, Pete and you are arrived in hell

lol!

Neoprene gloves with some chemical heating pads will keep your hands warm as long as they stay dry. Same with the feet.

The rest goes inside the drysuit. Wearing neoprene under the drysuit is counterproductive in my experience. Long wool underwear, fiber furs and then the drysuit.

The real issue is avoiding frostbite in the face. A man tends to look funny with no nose.

Waaahhhh, "I can't sail all winter"

I can drive my 7500# pickup on the lakes around here. 0˚C? It was -7˚F/-22˚C yesterday morning. Throw a 30mph wind on there and your balls freeze to the car seat when you sit down.

Quit yer crying.

What is this Winter thing you all talk about.

Rolf, many years ago I nearly lost a windsurffriend during a storm in wintertime who was wearing a drysuit with fiber/wool undersuit.

He teared his drysuit while we were surfing from the mainland to the first island in the north (Texel). He was more then an hour in very cold water before being washed ashore.

Suffering from Hypothermia he was taken to a hospital and we were fined by the police. It all came to prosecution with an appearance for a court of law.
At that time I was working for a surfmagazine and I had a plea by stating that the sea plays his own judge with regard to risky behavior. Fortunately the judge was impressed by my surf-status and my story.

We were convicted but with "no punishment infliction" (a seldom escape).

Since that day I never wear a drysuit with no wetsuit under it.


Karl, you are quite right with my boring about sailing in wintertime. I know that winters in the northern half of the V.S. can be much more severe then Dutch ones.

My first excuse is that I'm used to do windsurfing in wintertime for 35 years.
And my other excuse is that the clock is ticking for a 67 year old sailor. I have no time anymore for staying indoor a few months and reading books.

How many years (winters) can I still sail a beachcat at sea on my way???????????


Finally may I (half) quote Henri Bergson with his Elan Vital:

" That what interests me is not the man itself, but the flame which consumes him. The crimson line which pierces and passes through him"

brrrrr, there is a reason i moved to florida -

you really shouldn't keep all that cocaine on your boat like that. The law enforcement community may have some questions for you.

I live in S FL for the seasons: Wet and Dry. We're so close to the tropics we don't really get the "Fall, winter, spring, summer" thing...

It is rare we approach the low 40's F in the pre-dawn hours, and also rare we don't top the upper 70's F later that day...

First, getting fined for that windsurfing experience is a horrendous ethical legal practice in my experience. How many will never report a dangerous situation out of fear of being convicted and sent to jail or getting a fine.

Secondly, there is a thing called horses for courses. If you plan an experience like what you describe a wetsuit is perhaps the best. If you plan to sail along land in non-survival conditions on a cat, like I most often do, the wools and fibers goes on under the drysuit.

Yeah, but July & August it's so close to hell you can hear the souls screaming.

Its all relative...

Right now I'm cursing the weather gods for not being hot enough to warm up the pool. Seriously its the coldest its been in late March since we've moved to Central Florida.

Its only 70'F outside with a cold breeze.

Lots of 90/90 summer days. Ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity. Sometimes very close to 100/100.

I think our friend is not telling the whole story.
The part between Texel and the mainland is a protected nature reserve (razende bol), I'm betting thats why he got the ticket.

It only seems to be hot when you are not sailing. One more excuse to spend the day on the water.

Lately I'm wearing my normal gloves (because the neoprene wears down) and I have a surfing glove with no vingers, (and also the handpalm is not covered)just for the cold. I'm still looking for neoprene with enough protetion for the sheet.

i'd venture a guess that your town has hit 95 F. I don't believe we've ever gone above that in the 30 years of recordings.

I don't think Miami has ever hit 100 F... ever

but yes, the mosquitos outside town have been known to carjack tourists

and two months of sweat is way better than 5 months of freeze... my blood's way too thin for that nonsense

I use these all summer as well, great gloves:
http://www.gillmarine.com/gb/products/3-seasons-gloves-126/179

Here here...

I'd rather have 364 days of 100/100 than one of anything less than 40.

The good lord gave us swimming pools for a reason.

To enjoy them.

Can't escape the sun though. We'll have similar temps and humidity up here, but mother F'er is that sun brutal down there.

Sailing doesn't help, the Gulf is 80+ degrees in the summer. The water is about as soothing as leaping backwards through my own assh0le.

Ho,hO.....Tony yre questioning my credibility here.

Mmmmm....as a man of honour I would have challenged you to a duel in the old days, but now in modern information-times I will confine myself to some remarks.

This story played in the early years of the eighties. The place was between Lands-end (Den Helder) and the barracks of the Dutch marines in the Mokbay on the island Texel. We were sailing (windsurfing) there always in force 7 to 8 westerly (ingoing) winds combined with an outgoing tidestream.

In fact in those same days Stephan vanden Berg (then our worldchamp windsurfing) wanted to change from course racing to sea surfing. So he asked if he could join us and we did rape his "sea maidenhead" overthere.

Authorities were not happy with this new surfing thing, because it was at the same place were the ferry-boat to Texel was crossing. They didn't understand that with outgoing tide there was always this automatically separation between the ferry and us. Because when we went down we were always sucked away by the tidal stream from the ferry.

However that made us so reckless that we used to sail (on the windside) just beside the ferry and making jumps on the bow-wave, being photograhed by hunderds of holiday passengers.

So, Tony, if you speak of a reason for my appearance for the court of law (toenmalig kantongerecht denhelder) I was indeed not complete with my story. It has nothing to do with the nature protection program (natura 2000) which was first installed around the year 2000. No, it had to do with uneasy authorities who couldn't cope with this new phenomenon windsurfing.
And in this accident with my friend and him being nearly drowned, they found reason for blowing this whole thing up infront of a court.

To finalize the story: After the prosecution we decide to move 1 km westwards to the tower of the coastgard (Huisduinen) and discovered the outstanding spot of the Razende Bol (little sandy island, complete deserted) and passing from there to the southpoint of Texel.




Arjan, try the clawfinger-grip handgloves from ION!

I love what you guys to the english language! We native speakers make it so mundane often boring.

I know you guys have a hard time with modern technology up there in the great northern wastelands - but down here we have invented this really effective tool - its called...

Shade.

Try it sometime :P

Lived here all my life and can't wait to escape. Brogger is soooo spot on 6 months of stupid heat and insane humidity is nuts!

Grass, fence, greener.

apply lots of sunscreen and lubricate internals ... what heat?

Maybe. We'll see who is whining this weekend and who isn't.

If that don't work, they've got this cool thing in just about every structure here: air conditioning.

Seems at least once every summer the news down here broadcasts that several people up north have died from the heat in their homes. that has got to totally suck...

And God invented the summer in S FL for scuba diving or flying.

As one skydiver friend told me, "there are two places it's always cold in Florida: 5,000 feet ASL and -120 feet"

I regularly wear a full wetsuit to dive under 60 feet, where temps seem to average about 71 degrees F year round.

And I trust his comment on the 5,000 ASL thing. I was too busy crapping my pants to notice it was that cold at 17,000 + ASL

16 Celsius, Bft 5, clear and sunny.

One of the advantages of Northern Europe, you can just open a window for that cool breeze to come in, no air-conditioning necessary!
(As long as that window is just above a radiator though, you don't want to freeze to death!).

So,

I started this topic with complaining about the winter and the cold in Holland and it all ended in whining and complaining about the hotness and humidity in Florida.

It was fun and I got rid off one or two stories and learned a lot.

Conclusion: the grass is always greener elswhere. There is no sailing paradise. Adam, our first man, definitly made the wrong choice.

Adam had no choice, that game was totally rigged.

Picking up our Infusion in 18 days, and counting..

About 10 years ago I contemplated a career change and a move to Florida so I could sail more. I was one of the last two candidates for an engineering position with a natural gas company and having had a background in gas service engineering, I was a shoe-in. The company was a satellite office run out of Port Saint Lucie and I was expecting a plane ticket for a final interview. That ticket never showed up and my calls went unreturned. The parent company had apparently been busted on $30 million in consumer fraud and was shutting down satellite offices as it restructured. A couple of weeks later, a hurricane came ashore centered over the same area. I'm glad that interview process took as long as it did. Had all of this taken place two months earlier I probably would have just relocated, then lost my job, and had to run from a hurricane. That was the last time I considered moving to Florida.

We sailors can develop a "divine" intuition and some of us have a gardian angel too; all induced by wind and water.

Stay pure.

I think some of the issue is in FL and other "tropical" areas, there are too many potential sailing days leading to sailor apathy...

"Well, it's only blowing 4 Beaufort and 16 C with sunny skies. I think I'll just sail next week..."

In higher lattitudes, the sailing season is so short, if you miss one weekend, you've missed about 10% of the sailing season...

Congrats, any details?

In your case your proximity to the Petten nuclear research reactor may have something to do with that ;-)

L.O.L. Dennis,

No, it has nothing to do with The Reactor next door.

My theory is that sailors have to be able "to let go on the sea and in the wind". It is something like the grounding or sinking (martial art) in the earthground ashore.

This letting-go, but controlled (YOU ARE NOT A FLABBY PUPPET), leads to an intuition in order to act when things go wrong and you have to act.

(I studied 25 years chinese martial art and also there in combat the same applies.)

The guardian angel is a different story. That's the bonus which you get on the end when the intuition has extended to other situations then the sailing-situation.

For everybody's clearness this all has to do with the intrinsic forces beyond the normal "keeping your balance" thing.

Are you still there? If you see me sailing on the Northsea you understand that I'm not "hovering" or just blethering.

Between waves there's no time for hocus-pocus!

Northsea, I do understand you.

You're talking about the "mind-like-water" state that allows you to act in tune with everything around you without needing to plan for every wave. This highly aware and balanced mental state is the plan and your actions flow from that.
I know the feeling (I do meditate but don't do martial arts myself), that same state works wonders for fast action computer games too ;-) I think it speeds up your reactions because it feels almost as if time slows down to allow you to react instantly without thinking about it.

Dennis

I've been in the Midwest US (Wisconsin) for about 4 yrs now.
And after 4 yrs, people still think I was nuts for moving FROM TX to WI!

That was from the Gulf coast of TX.

I still don't miss all that heat and humidity 9 months of the year.
Sledding is pretty cool also

So, is it after all still the lack off seasons???

Can you endure any time of heat, coldness, rain, snow, as long as you know that it will end in a reasonable time?

That was my motivation for this thread. I was complaining about this "reasonable winter-time", now happening in Europe.

Jokingly, I say I don't go outside in August. It is almost true!

I think there has been a hurricane or two that has hit you state as well.

Huc i ranes hit TX also! Ike was my last beofre leaving the area.

Yes, we call that "urban renewal", and it gets rid of the shoddy buildings and trailer parks

I was just in Islamorada for the weekend, freezing my butt off! It was 75 but blowing 15+ gusts every day, Friday-Sunday. The water has cooled off so it was chilly, I just wish we had that wind back in January for Tradewinds!! I spent the entire weekend sitting in a lawn chair whatching my youngest get some one on one with a springboard diving instructor, at the Founder's Park pool.

Chip and Barb, where have you moved to? I walked over to the hut hoping to rent a Wave or something, but everything is gone, except the hut, which was locked up.

We did amble over to the Islander for dinner on Saturday, when Lora Lie's was too full, I saw a bunch of Waves over there, and one Getaway, but it was about 7pm with nobody around to ask.

Is that where you guys (Barb and Chip) are now?

Funny, when I was growing up in New Hampshire, we were outside in 10 degrees or less, playing pond hockey all day and well into the night (it gets dark at 4:30pm up theya') and I never felt cold. But now after the past 15 years in Sebring, with 98 degrees and 98 percent humidity from May through November, well, every time it gets below 70, I'm freezing my butt off! As I told my wife Saturday night, "What a pussy I have become! I've got a jacket on, in the Keys!"

The Islander Watersports is run by Dennis Green. I think Chip and Barb's rental outfit at Founders suffered the same fate as the Tradewinds regatta (insurance wrangling with the park management).

Still no sailing here... Easter this year was colder than Christmas... when does this ever stop?

Yesterday the Tampa TV weather man was talking about how this past March was one of the coldest on record in Florida, the coldest in the past 81 years, and this March avg. temp. (61F) was colder than December, January and February, which were all in the high to mid 60's on average!

this march was also some of the best wind of the year (here in the tampa area).

Pretty normal winter up here. Still snow on the ground, but it's disappearing quickly. We've been spoiled for the past few years. I think one out of the last ten has been really brutal where it was below zero F for a month with it bottoming at -40F for a week. Our lakes still have a couple feet of ice on them

I'm sure your snow up there somehow leads to our fresh water down here, so let it snow!

And don't pee on it or we'll have funny water in about 10,000 years when it gets here.

Arjan you are a pussy!

Put some layers on (wetsuit,drysuit), buy some good handgloves and get on sailing. Its a marvelous NO-wind around 20 knot.
I have sailed these weeks atleast 4 times.

Oh Wow,

We gotta push thru Crap and trade NOW! All this global warming is really bad! I for one am turning into a liberal and bieleving this Shiite! Oh wait, April fools was yesterday- never mind.

YOu know why Obammee and his henchmen shot down the Keystone pipline don't you?

B/C one of his largest bankrollers also now owns the railroad that transports that fuel oil my rail car!

Todd,
take this crap somewhere else!

The Aussies have stolen our heat! Give it back plz, mates!

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breakin...rd-hottest-on-record/20130401-2h26k.html

Word.

No Patriots in the Super Bowl?!!

Thanks Obama!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkQxHlr2fXM

[quote=Tony_F18]The Aussies have stolen our heat! Give it back plz, mates!

Sorry we were enjoying it, official end to my clubs sailing season yesterday, only 28 degrees, (82 degrees Fahrenheit), small waves on aqua sea, 10 to 12 knots

we sailed in Medemblik today with the 32, was very cold still but nice to be back on the water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ5n3xlk_oQ&feature=youtu.be

Looks like the wind will have some West in it, for the first time in months, on Thursday.
This easterly crap has been blowing for ages

Down here on the kent coas it has swung around more southerly today and the sun is out but its not what i would call warm!

Who is getting snow tomorrow night? Quit yer bitching.

I can still open the house in early morings but usually by 10:00-10:30 the heat/humidity are high enough we close up and turn on the a/c. Well, we don't actually turn it off...

Supposed to be 85 and blowing SE at 10 today, I'm giong sailing.

You guys up nawth, keep your head's down!

enjoy spring, it ends tomorrow

Ha ha, April is probably one of the best months weather wise, in Florida, followed by November. It's supposed to get hot and humid by Thursday-Friday though, so I'm going to sail my butt off today and tomorrow.

Finally my pool is getting warmer although its seriously still too cold to get in. At this point last year I was using it every day.

The cold snap 2 weeks ago brought the gulf temps back to the low 60's. If i hadn't purchased "dry" bibs this past x-mas, my sailing would have been greatly diminished this year.

Gulf temps are back up 10* in 2 weeks.

Snow still on the front lawn.This winter is really cold and long.I am not happy with this trend but we the human are nothing before nature.

The Prindle 16, aymetrical hulls, those are great boats. I hope Bruce A. see's this

Winter is finally over!!!!!!!!!

Just a little impression of today: 40 knots cross-onshore.

It's good to be back, sailing with 20 kts speed between high waves. I love the northsea...........



www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptKScEAynDI&feature=youtu.be

Jeez. I'm looking forward to 6-8 knots wind speed and warm, flat water.

Another 3-4 inches of snow tonight.....

You might live in the wrong part of the world when ....

+1. it's forecast sunny and 88 F today. But spring will be here soon...

Another five to eight inches of snow in the forecast for tonight..... crazy

Spring have arrived in Norway. +10degC and we sailed yesterday in great winds!

According to scientists, global warming is the culprit behind the late spring. A giant high pressure system is blocking the usual weather patterns in the higher latitudes pushing air from the pole southwards.

Perhaps this is another year with no summer, like last year.

We had our first F18 Class Event last weekend, on the first day it was very windy (25kts+), chilly (8c) but very sunny as well.
Unfortunately we had to stop after the 1st race because of a broker crossbar
Second day very little wind (5-10kts) but still doable.

Cool spinpole video from one of the crews, maybe we need helmets too?

Weather looks brilliant!

Whats up with the water? It should be blue I suppose the name of the place, Muiderzand, gives the answer..

Poor guys in NED488. Proper dive and Peter Pan move

Got a foot of wet sloppy snow last night. Go F yourselves with your complaints about winter.

Yep the weather becomes much better lately.... (almost warm)
yesyerday evening suddenly a pleasent surprise.. Somebody opened a window I think and suddenly it went from 8-10 knots to 15 - 20 knots

Last night - snow again.. It did not stay luckily as driving on snow with summer tires is bad karma.

The road cleaning teams go off-duty 1st of May so winter is officially over. I salute and welcome the season of green winter