The Wicked Winds of the West and South

When Joe and I met Tuesday morning for a lap of the harbor, the conditions were classically blustery.  The Fahrenheit temperature was in the high 40s and falling, and the northwest wind was howling more from the west than from the north.  Most of the time the wind here blows from the north or the south, and since the harbor runs north-south, you've got the wind at your back at least half the time.  But an east or west wind is harder to get a break from.  Joe and I stuck close to the harbor's west bank, hoping to get whatever protection we could there.

It was about ten degrees warmer when I went down to paddle yesterday, and it was windy again--more of a traditional south wind this time.  But what a wind!  I mentioned that last Thursday was an extremely windy day down on the riverfront, but I'm pretty sure it was even more fierce yesterday.  This time I was better dressed for getting wet, and I paddled to the mouth of the harbor hoping to avail myself of some downwind action out on the Mississippi.

But once I was out there I had the bravery drained right out of me.  I didn't have a shuttle car waiting for me upriver, and I realized that returning to the harbor, paddling into the teeth of that wind, was not a simple matter.  Also, just like last Thursday, I lacked a "buddy," and I didn't have a leash connecting myself to my ski, either.  Since downwind conditions are not so common here, I'm just not in the habit of going to the river with things like that.

So, I retraced the hundred meters or so back to the harbor (even that was surprisingly tricky).  Whether I was being smart, or just a wuss, I'll let the reader decide.  But back in the harbor the consolation prize wasn't bad, at least.  As I paddled into the constricted area between the monorail bridge and the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, I found some surfable waves.  This confirmed my suspicion that the wind speed was toward the high end of what I've ever experienced on the Memphis riverfront: waves you can surf in the harbor are rare indeed.  I spent a half-hour or so working on some of the downwind fundamentals I learned out on the Columbia River last summer, and then returned to the dock soaking wet and mildly satisfied with how my session had gone.

In other news, I started up a new strength routine this week.  I did a cursory round on Monday, just to give my muscles a heads-up that their job description had changed.  I did full rounds (i.e., two trips through the circuit) on Wednesday and today.


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