Riding with the Wind

We had rain over the weekend. It rained on Friday night and Saturday night. I love it when it rains overnight and we have clear days. The rain makes the air seem so fresh.

On Sunday, my daughter Shauna came over to visit and watch the Chargers game with me. The game was a blowout. It was worst Chargers performance I’ve ever witnessed. In the third quarter, Shauna decided she’d seen enough. She went out for a run. She’s training for a half marathon coming up in a couple of weeks. Her training schedule called for a 10-mile run on Sunday. She ran from Mission Bay RV Resort through Crown Point Shores to Mission Beach and back.

I watched the Denver Broncos get taken down by the Patriots in the afternoon. The Chargers have a bye next weekend. Hopefully they can gather it up and come back playing like they did in the first quarter of the season.

The cooler temperatures lingered on Monday. The temperature dropped into the 50s overnight and the high for the day only reached 72 degrees. It was windy in the afternoon. We had 18mph wind from the northwest with gusts of 24mph. I rode my bike to Pacific Beach. The wind made the ride out difficult. The wind pushed me along on the way back though.

The funny thing is, when you’re riding into the wind, the wind resistance makes it hard work. However, the wind also aids evaporative cooling, so you don’t notice how much you’re sweating. When you ride with the wind at your back, there’s very little resistance and you can speed along. But with very little air passing over your body, evaporative cooling doesn’t work so well and you feel hotter as the sweat starts dripping from your body.

I made a few stops on the way back to take photos. People were out on the bay taking advantage of the windy conditions. I saw sailboats, wind surfers and kite surfers. The kite surfer had a board that was a hydrofoil. As he gained speed, the board rose up out of the water and rode along on a small winglet on the keel. It looked fun, but I couldn’t capture a picture of him at speed. The only photo I got was just after he hopped off of the board.

Kite surfer at Sail Bay

Kite surfer at Sail Bay

The wind surfer struggled as he sped along. I saw him capsize a couple of times from powerful wind gusts. You can see the wind blowing the flag in the background of this picture.

Wind surfer near Paradise Point

Wind surfer near Paradise Point

Sailboat tacking into the wind

Sailboat tacking into the wind

I saw something I’d never seen at Mission Bay before – a peregrine falcon perched on a pole. I shot a picture but I couldn’t hold my camera phone steady enough to zoom in.

Peregrine falcon perched on a pole

Peregrine falcon perched on a pole

As always, clicking on the images will enlarge them.

I have to run some errands this morning, then I’ll tackle defrosting the refrigerator this afternoon. Donna will return this evening, I can hardly wait until she returns!

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