March 16

Bonaire Lac Bay. NP EVO 5 7.8, iSonic 107, Black Project FreeDeltaRE 21. Wind: started at 12 knots from E, increased to 15 from ENE by end of session.

Apparently getting more used to the FreeDeltaRE as didn't have spinout issues today. Wind was light when I arrived so rigged the Neil Pryde EVO 5 7.8. Tide was still unusually low so plugged the FreeDeltaRE back in. About 5 slalom rigs sitting on the beach when I arrived but no one on the water. Eventually Oda (N500) sailed in and looked powered so finished rigging and went out. Soon Oda was joined by Amado (NB22) as they raced together. I had one chance to pace myself against them, of course I was slower but over the length of the bay run they only pulled ahead by maybe 75 meters. Later Taty (NB9) and Tonky Frans (NB7) also went out and were racing each other - Taty was definitely faster.  As I was coming into the beach Taty did a screaming jibe behind me then a couple of seconds later I heard actual screaming - it was Tonky coming from upwind behind me and trying to squeeze through the opening of about 5 meters between me and the beach. I immediatly started to jibe to make room and Tonky made it through - no problem, but definitely gave me an adrenaline rush... Later, on the beach Tonky came over to me and apologized - he thought I was going to do my normal close-to-the-beach jibe and realized almost too late that I was actually headed to the beach and there would be no place for him to go. He was on Taty's new race gear and really didn't want to crash it into the beach. He was very concerned that I was upset about the incident. Initially I was but we had a great chat that resolved any problems I might have had. Both he and Taty are great guys and certainly great ambassadors for windsurfing. 

Two observation from today:

1) I still have a long way to go to even think about keeping up with the pros :).

2) In looking at my tracks, the 'slingshot' into the shallows of the mangroves were consistently my fast 10 sec segments. Glad I have the shallow water fin for when the wind picks up...