July 2 - HR Waterfront Park - PB 2 Sec, 5x10

Hood River Waterfront Park, Hood River, The Gorge, OR, US

Sailworks Retro 5.5, JP Magic Ride 104, 38 cm fin wind: 20 15G25 Knots

Been a long time since I've felt comfortable sailing (i.e. since I left Bonaire in May) - today hopefully starts a new chapter in Gorge sailing for me. For the first time since I stopped sailing the Gorge in the late 1990's, I felt comfortable and in control - maybe because today the wind was much steadier... Whatever, it felt good. Made a couple of jibes on swell faces (very nice feeling) and of course blew the rest. Stopped for a rest and was planning to finally start adding some km to my sessions here  and then the wind died. As a result of having a good day and no wind in the afternoon, I was FORCED, FORCED I TELL YOU, to walk up to Big Winds and get a new board. :) . Anxious to try out the Goya Bolt 95 liter Free Race with at 36 cm MFC KP-360 slalom fin. Happy New Toy Day to Me!!

Roo, of course, was cranking. 

Roo commented:

5 jelly beans and 2 PBs, way to go Barton. You deserve a new board for that effort. Glad you are getting to grips with the Gorge...30 isn't far off now! Great job.

I commented:

Thanks Roo. You are a big factor in making it happen with all the equipment tuning and advice you have so graciously provided. Yes, I was surprised to see the PBs as I had pretty much stopped looking at the GW-52 display except for the distance number. The one run felt fast - anxious to see if the Goya Bolt allows me to mentally as well as physically get past 30 knots in the chop... Wind forecast looks like it might be possible :)

Windxtacy commented:

Congratulations, Barton!

WazzaYotta commented:

Nice pb's Barton....congrats!

I commented:

Thank you Anita and Wazza. Not great numbers compared to most in GPSTC but slowly improving.

Here is the new toy. The shape reminds me a lot of my iSonic 90 that I have in Bonaire. I've been told that the Goya bolt jibes much easier than an iSonic, guess I'll find out :)