5.4 Day at Plattsburg 9-28-09

Above is the Plattsburg Iwindsurf graph for 9-28-09. I sailed 5.4 on a 85 ltr. FWS board. I had a good time but the swell was a little off.
Below is the graph for White's beach for comparison. I think we made the right call.
Brian

Windguru Forecast for Whites Beach 9-27-09

Sandbar State Park - Northwest Day 9-18-09

A pretty decent NW day at Sandbar State Park. The gate was open, Port-a-potty were still there and there was actual wind. The wind line came in once the clouds past and I rigged a 4.8 sail on my JP 85 ltr FSW board. Of course it was up and down, but we sailed. It has been a while and since there has not been any south wind days, you have to make due. Here is the graph.

Chatham oceanside beaches closed

By Aaron Gouveia

agouveia@capecodonline.com

September 06, 2009

CHATHAM — Swimming has been prohibited at all Chatham oceanside beaches for the remainder of Labor Day weekend because of several great white sharks spotted off Monomoy Island, Harbor Master Stuart Smith said yesterday.

Gregory Skomal, a senior biologist and shark expert with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said he spotted four great white sharks off Chatham's coast yesterday. That prompted beach officials at North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Hardings Beach in Chatham and Nauset Beach in Orleans to raise the red "no swimming" signs, much to the disappointment of beachgoers trying to enjoy the last big weekend of summer.

But from a scientific standpoint, Skomal said it was a blockbuster day.

Skomal and his crew managed to place electronic tags on two of the great white sharks, which he said were 8 and 10 feet long.

Using the tags' satellite-based technology, Skomal said researchers will be better able to understand the sharks' migratory patterns.

"From a scientific perspective, it's fantastic," Skomal said while still walking around in his fishing boots yesterday in Chatham. "We're pretty excited to be putting together the pieces of the puzzle."

Great White Shark in the waters off Cape Cod

Boaters, swimmers on Cape warned after shark sightings

Email|Link|Comments (178) September 4, 2009 04:21 PM

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A state shark expert today spotted what appeared to be a great white shark in the waters off Cape Cod, prompting officials to warn boaters and swimmers to be cautious and to use good judgment when they hit the water over the holiday weekend.

Is something like this lurking off Chatham?

Greg Skomal, the expert with the Division of Marine Fisheries, was able to locate the animal off the eastern coast of Monomoy Island, which is off Chatham, and determined it was "very likely" a great white shark, said Lisa Capone, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

After state officials received reports of several large sharks in the area, Skomal spotted five large sharks from the air Thursday. He got aboard a boat today hoping to get a closer look and identify what species they were with the help of a spotter pilot. He found the one shark, but fog and cloud cover rolled in, depriving him of the help of the pilot, and he couldn't find any more.

Capone said that an Environmental Police boat would patrol the area today, Saturday, and Sunday.

Authorities in Chatham on Thursday urged swimmers to be careful while cooling off in the waters off the town.

"While it is rare for a shark to strike and attack a human in the water, it can happen and given the recent local shark sightings, swimmers should exercise caution while swimming in Chatham's ocean waters. In particular, people should avoid swimming in waters in the direct proximity of seals where sharks may be in search of prey," the town's harbormaster and parks and recreation director said in a statement.

The statement said there have been "recent confirmed reports of sharks feeding on seals" in the area. On Aug. 28, the carcass of a seal was confirmed to have been partly eaten by a large shark, the statement said.

Two kayakers paddling off of Chatham on Aug. 15 reported that they saw a possible attack by a great white shark on a seal. A large fin protruded about a foot from the water as the bloodied seal frantically jumped out of the water. Skomal said it was a credible report.

Colchester Reef meter email

This Email was forwarded to me. It explains how the meter is setup and why it only updates once per hour.

From: emeryboarder@surfglobal.net
To: Carl.Waite@uvm.edu
Subject: Re: Colchester Reef wind data site
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 17:01:40 -0400

Hi Carl,

Thanks for the heads up. That's good news - glad to hear that NWS was
interested. I don't see gust data ever getting bumped out of the #2
position in the wind speed data hierarchy but there are other
characteristics relating to wind speed variability that are
intriguing. Like Eskimos using an array of words for specific
qualities of "snow," after kiteboarding sessions you hear various
differentiating terms (besides "gusty" or "steady") being used to
describe the wind speed characteristics that day - like "punchy" or
"holey." It will be interesting to compare our field evidence with
Std Dev data once that is available.

Given the orientation of Lake Champlain I'm going to venture a guess
that westerly wind directions will generally have the greatest wind
speed distribution spread. I look forward to a fresh excuses to talk
about Lake Champlain winds.

Thanks again for being willing to explore this further.
Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Waite"
To: "Kenneth Emery"
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: Colchester Reef wind data site

Hi Ken,

I have spoken to the folks at NWS and they too would be interested
is Std Dev of wind speed. We do already collect Std Dev of wind
direction, although, NWS does not currently display those data on
their site. NWS is agreeable to adding Stds to their site. I will
make changes to the program when I get the chance, but it will not
happen immediately.

Again, thank you for your interest in the CR data.

Best,
Carl

At 01:35 PM 8/28/2009 -0400, you wrote:
Carl,

Thank you for taking the time to reply and respond to the questions.
I can appreciate what you are up against to keep the Colchester Reef
data station up and running - through the winter especially.

The only other question I raised was regarding existing data...
Specifically, while it is helpful to have "gust" as well as
"average" data elements presented, would it be possible to have "lull" data per 15 min segment to match the gust data, or better
yet, a standard deviation calculation that might provide a better
overall indication of the degree of speed variability behind the
"average" reading (data that might suggest how (in)consistent the
wind speed is around the mean)... just thought I'd ask because the
software piece might be less involved to tweak. If this isn't
workable either, we will continue to compare the gap between the
average and gust in order to guess as to the potential for
unfriendly wind speed changes.

Again, thanks

Ken Emery

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Waite"

To: "joanna grossman" ; "Kenneth Emery"
emeryboarder@surfglobal.net>
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: Colchester Reef wind data site


Hello Ken,

As Joanna said, we are sorry that the current wind data output from
Colchester Reef does not totally meet your needs, but our first
obligation is to the research community which these data support.
Because our station runs entirely on batteries and solar, we do
need to be careful about the frequency of data transmission. The
Colchester Reef station also acts as a repeater for data
transmission from a met station at mid-elevation on Mt. Mansfield.
This puts additional strain on our batteries.


1. Are any system upgrades planned?

We do not anticipate any major changes or upgrades to the system in
the near future. Because of the high winds, exposure and icing
during winter at Colchester Reef, it is a bit challenging to keep
even the existing equipment intact and operating.

2. Is there any avenues by which other interested parties
could
contribute to improve upon the existing system?

We currently do not have a mechanism for accepting donations.


3. Can data be available more often that hourly?
As I said before, the station runs entirely off 12V batteries with
solar recharge. It is possible to add more batteries and panels,
but that is not likely to happen this year. We can look into that
for the future which would allow more frequent data transmissions,
but I can not make any promises.

4. Do you foresee any other wind sites being considered
(besides
Diamond Island)?

Another site near Missisquoi Bay is being considered for research
purposes. I am not sure if such a site will have any significant
benefit for you and other windsurfers.

We will look into the possibility of more frequent data
transmissions, as this subject has been raised before. We cannot
make any promises, but will do the best we can.

Thank you for expressing you interest in these data and we hope
they are useful despite their shortcomings for your purposes.
Regards,
Carl


At 08:31 AM 8/21/2009 -0400, joanna grossman wrote:
1. Are any system upgrades planned?
2. Is there any avenues by which other interested parties
could
contribute to improve upon the existing system?
3. Can data be available more often that hourly?
4. Do you foresee any other wind sites being considered
(besides
Diamond Island)?

Carl Waite
University of Vermont
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and
The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative
Office: 705 Spear Street, S. Burlington, VT
Mail: 81 Carrigan Drive, Burlington, VT 05405

Tel: (802) 656-0683
Fax: (802) 656-8683
Email: Carl.Waite@uvm.edu
Carl Waite
University of Vermont
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and
The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative
Office: 705 Spear Street, S. Burlington, VT
Mail: 81 Carrigan Drive, Burlington, VT 05405
Tel: (802) 656-0683
Fax: (802) 656-8683
Email: Carl.Waite@uvm.edu

Where is the wind?

September 3, 2009 - what is going on with the wind? 2 weekends in a row with hurricanes coming up the coast and no sailable wind. I think we need a wind sacrifice.