Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Tuesday 4 4 17 morning call

Super busy day organizing the departure for my trip, but I did manage to squeeze a surf session in yesterday. Hookipa was the smallest it's been in at least 10 days after those two large back to back WNW swells. Get used to this size, soon it's gonna be the norm. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


3am significant buoy readings
South shore

Lanai
1.5ft @ 13s from 228° (SW)
1.2ft @ 10s from 222° (SW)
Mmm... not sure what to think about those readings, and I don't have time to investigate this morning, so please check the webcams.

North shore
NW101
5.3ft @ 10s from 100° (E)
4.8ft @ 11s from 312° (NW)

NW001
7.3ft @ 10s from 111° (ESE)

Waimea
3ft @ 12s from 317° (NW)

Pauwela
5.1ft @ 9s from 78° (ENE)
2.6ft @ 11s from 326° (NW)
2.3ft @ 5s from 69° (ENE)

I totally question that 4.8f 11s at the NW101 buoy, considering that the nearby NW001 only reads windswell. I think there might still be NW energy up there, but the buoy gets confused with the energy of the easterly windswell. Or the Surfline way of interpreting the readings.

--- update: 4am NW101 reading is 7.2ft @ 10s from 93° (E) and that confirms my theory ---

Doesn't really matter, there's no much on the way anyway and what counts is what we have locally. 3f 12s at Waimea (we can count on those) and 2.6f 11s + windswell at Pauwela will make for another head high not particularly clean kinda day. I won't be doing a beach report, but with the Hookipa sensor already reading 10(6-15)mph from 91 at 4.30am, I'll give it a maximum of 2 without even seeing it.

The Windguru 10 days table shows the continuation of the easterly trades for the whole week. In the weekend things should finally change and bring some clouds and rain and a break in the relentless wind. But it's not going to last long, as the trades will start blowing again shortly after. We are heading towards spring (you guys know I don't go by the calendar) and this is a clear sign of that.


Today the weather will be extremely pleasant once again.


Current wind map shows:
1-2) small weak WNW-NW fetches
3) a strong fetch in the gulf of Alaska, unfortunately aiming more at the west coast (13f 11s forecasted on Saturday in the Monterey area). We might still get a bit of angular spreading
4) a tiny fetch down south


This is the last call until I return from my trip on April 27th. The morning calls should be back on the 28th. I'll try to post as much as I can/feel while travelling, so keep checking the blog please.

Couple of words about my trip, assuming some of the readers might be curious. First, I didn't choose the period. I just got a request for accommodation from some friends, made a deal with them for using my house and car and booked the Bali tickets. That's how I plan on doing my longer Italy-Indo trip in summer time, so if your plan on coming to Maui for 1.5 months this summer, let me know. Single person would be preferable, but can accommodate two.

In Bali I have two boards at a friend's house and could be quite happy to just surf there (two years ago Uluwatu was a lot less crowded in April than July), but this time Easter is right in the middle of my stay and there's some nasty weather forecasted around the 12-14.

I have never been to the Mentawai islands and I always wanted to go, but the way it works over there really doesn't fit my style of travelling. I like to travel with no reservations, following the flow (and the forecast). Most resorts/boats over there want you to drop a considerable amount of money for fixed 8-11 nights periods.

So I haven't booked anything yet, but I've been contacting heaps of boats and surf camps, holding some ferocious negotiations in same cases. One thing is for sure: I'm not going to book at 7 nights stay at the Macaroni's resort ($300 night) if it's gonna be small and onshore for the first 4 days.

Ideally, I would like to explore the Playgrounds area and possibly also surf two waves I always wanted to surf: Telescopes and Macaronis. Below is a collage of the ferry schedules I was able to retrieve over the internet. As I said, I'd like to move from one camp to another on my independent schedule. Wish me luck.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Have a great trip giampaolo!