Feb 29

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon 38. Wind: 12 G 15

Good light wind pumping and gybe practice day.

Feb 27

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake carbon 38. Wind: 15 - 17 knots (with big holes and gusts)

A day to cruise around the bay. Made a very small incremental improvement in gybing. At the end of the day was somewhat surprised to realize that I spent a lot of the day in 'cruise' mode, the comfortable mode I generally associate with my Gorge Gear. Guess the time spent working on the tips that Taty Frans gave are starting to pay off. Granted, I was on the bigger iSonic with slightly lighter wind but I was able to get a lot more distance than a couple of months ago...

Feb 25

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC 360. Wind: 17 knots

More gybe practice combined with practicing the 'slingshot' into the mangrove shallows and then gybing before it gets too shallow. Was not always successful and would have to stop after the gybe to clear the turtle grass off the fin.

Feb 24

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 5.5, Hi-Tech 8'4" SVF, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC 360, Wind 17-20 knots

Started on the Hi-Tech, wind backed off so switched to iSonic. Got some good runs, wind picked back up so switched back to Hi-Tech. Still amazed at how easy the Hi-Tech is to gybe compared to the iSonic. Of course, the iSonic is WAY faster :). The posted numbers all occurred while riding the iSonic (except distance, which of course is the sum of both boards)

Feb 23

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC 340, Wind: 15 G 18 knots

Wind returned and had another good day on the water. Had not sailed for FOUR days and it felt like an eternity :). Good conditions for gybe practice. I sail from about 14:30 to 16:30 and have 'my portion' of the bay to myself. About 16:30 the freestylers emerge from their afternoon hybernation and it starts getting crowded - making concentrating on the gybes more difficult.

Observation: I seem to sail with a heavy 'fin foot', three times I started to spin out (fully powered as I was rounding the sand bar with heavy rear foot pressure). I think it is time to up the fin size for these conditions to the 36 cm fin.

Finally had a semi-decent laydown gybe (last gybe of the session) and when I looked at GPSResults, it turns out to also be the best alpha of the day :). Nothing spectacular but maybe I'm finally getting the timing down. Left turn laydowns are much better than right turn. I think am not as aggressive on the right turns in laying down the sail and am waiting 1 or 2 seconds too long before initiating the sail flip. 

Feb 18

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon 38. Wind: 15 G 18

Good gybe practice session for the iSonic boards. Also had some fun drag racing with a couple of guys. I was always fastest until a pro and his buddies showed up, also on iSonics but with Race Sails. Hopefully the gybing training will allow me to transition back to the race sails soon... (my call of course).

Feb 16 - PB 5x10, 1 hour

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 5.5, Hi-Tech 8'4" SVF, Wind: 17 G 23

Great GORGE GEAR afternoon. Everything felt balanced and ready for a comfortable ride. Tweaked my back on Friday, spent Saturday and Sunday in bed so was ready to get back on the water. Today was the perfect therapy :). Still amazed at how much easier it is to gybe the Hi-Tech than the iSonics, even with the same sails plugged in!

Feb 12

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC 340. Wind: 15 kts

Good sail/board combination for this wind and chop level in the bay. Made for a relatively comfortable ride - not blazing speed but enough to keep the heart working. Focus was gybing - just starting to get the hang of a 'lay down' gybe to dump the sail power so I can flip the sail at the correct time. Still a struggle for me to get the timing correct.

Today my lower back muscles wanted to cramp so I wasn't able to take full advantage of great conditions for practicing. Bummer getting old... but very thankful I'm still able to sail.

Feb 11

Bonaire Lac Bay. NP EVO 5 7.8, iSonic 107, Drake carbon 38.  Wind: 13 - 14 kts

Arrived as the afternoon doldrums were setting in. Rigged and attempted a bay crossing - slogged both ways. Waited until I only had about 1/2 hour of sailing time left - wind picked up to maybe 14 kts. Enough that with pumping I could get going. Made a couple of runs then had to leave. 

Taty Frans was testing his new 2016 iSonic 134 with Gastra Vapor 7.9. He, of course, was romping around the bay with abandon while everyone else was sitting on the beach waiting for wind.

Feb 10

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 5.5, Hi-Tech 8'3 dimpled rounded pin, Hi-Tech 8'4 SVF, iSonic 107, Wind : 19 knots and dropping

Was blowing 23 kts when I was loading up the gear so wanted a shot at sailing the 8'3" and added the rest of the normal gear. By the time I got to the bay the wind was doing its normal afternoon dropoff. Figured the 5.5 might be enough, and it was for a couple of fun runs on the 8'3". I had forgotten how much of a sinker it is so when the wind started to drop, I immediately changed to the 8'4". Got a few more good runs before it became too small and I changed to the iSonic 107.  Got some decent runs with it and it looked like the afternoon wind bump was happening so switched back to the 8'4" but it was very marginal. 

Was fun to watch Taty Frans, Kiri Thode, and Amado making runs on the prototype 2018 Starboard freestyle boards. 

Feb 9

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon 38. Wind: 16 knots

Nothing too exciting today, just got some good TOTW (time on the water) training. I clearly need to do some off-water exercises as my thigh/hamstring muscles get very tired after a couple of 'NM in chop' attempts.

Feb 8

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 5.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC 340. Wind: 19 knots

Short session. Got my white-knuckle E-ticket ride doing the NM. Was disappointed to find it was actually 1/2 knot slower than my PB. It sure felt fast and scary at the time... Guess that is what happens with slightly stronger winds and bigger chop.

Feb 7

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Cam 1+1 4.6, Hi-Tech 8'4" SVF. Wind: 22 kts

Great to be back on the water. Wind finally returned yesterday. Good day on the Gorge Gear. Guys on the beach kept telling me to rig 4.5 or smaller, I relented and was reasonably powered most of the day but could easily have used the 5.1 and probably held down the 5.5. Managed to come within .5 meters of the mangrove trees on a couple of jibes - probably a little too close :). Tomorrow is supposed to be similar to today so will try the 5.5 and probably the iSonic 90.