WTF….?

This is one bizarre Sydney summer. We have been ready to go now for about the last 3 weeks, yet the weather is still stuck in a typical spring pattern, with cooler days, onshore winds, even unseasonal easterlies & sou ' easterlies, and no set summer conditions.

Typical Black Nor' Easter conditions off Sydney

By now we usually have a very settled weather pattern, with hot dry days, a sea breeze from the Nor 'east by early afternoon, and the very occasional ball-tearing southerly buster to blow away the grime.

Wacky predictions for the coming week off Sydney (thanks to Seabreeze.com.au)

The success of our One Degree South paddle is to a large extent dependent on a 'Black' nor 'easter, a wind which follows hot summer weather & blows hard for about three days, with the middle day usually a long strong day of winds around the 20-30kn mark.
Game fishing skippers in the Illawarra have also been keeping tabs on the EAC for us, and it continues to swirl & send back eddies of 1.5 - 2knots running back north along our B-Line. You don't have to be Einstein to imagine what a 2 knot current opposing a 20+knot wind would be like 12-15km offshore, probably amazing fun for a couple of hours, but a bit wearing after 15 hours!

Current set of the EAC off NSW (thanks to imos.aodn.org.au)

So, the strange twists of this El Nina pattern have us in a holding pattern awaiting the ideal sort of conditions we feel are necessary not only to go the distance in a day, but also do it in the rollicking style we are hoping for.
Stay tuned….!

Shorter, Harder, Faster

Heres a great short article in a recent Outside magazine about short, sharp training for endurance events.
http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/endurance-training/Shorter--Harder--Smarter-.html

Summer Nor 'Easters

In my mind Monday represented the real start of summer in Sydney, with the arrival of our first Black Nor Easterly wind.
This is a sea breeze peculiar to the few hundred kilometers of coast either side of Sydney in summer time, and occurs when the normal summer sea breeze comes in early and keeps on blowing ostensibly because the heat dissipates from the land much slower than normal.

Driving back from the South Coast yesterday morning I felt the beginnings of the wind at about 9am, and topping the Kiama bends with a great view out to sea an hour or so later I could see the telltale signs of a really good honking wind bringing the surface of the sea to life. At 10pm Monday evening it was still blowing strong, where a normal sea breeze would rise mid afternoon and be gone typically by early evening.

We've got some good advice on the patterns of these winds over the coming weeks with a view to latching onto the big developed sea that they generate, usually steep, slower moving, rideable wind swell.
The idea of riding a big following, fully developed sea for hours on end is something we're all very excited about, as you can imagine.
Probably 2-3 weeks more training & preparation & we'll be right to go.
Mark.