Dec 24

2707km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 36, Wind: 15G20 knots

Finally, a decent session with TOTW, consistent wind for the entire session, and the correct guess regarding equipment.

The tuning from the previous session seemed to help. Moving the foot straps made the iSonic more lively but still controllable. The sail tuning per Roo and using the top clew hole provided a sail that was stable, had nice pull low on the sail yet was still manageable in the gusts. Numbers are not indicative of the fun I had today - first time in a long time that everything felt good with just enough 'on the edge' to keep the runs interesting. Even made some jibes and while not pretty 'lay downs' at least I'm starting to get the feel. I need to be more aggressive and switch stance earlier in the jibe. Unfortunately, the wind was lighter in the flat water of the mangrove area so off wind speeds suffered as well as power in the sail for jibing. On the plus side, the runs to the north seemed consistently faster (per Bitchin' Betty) than I remember by 2-3 knots (in the 21-24 knot range - will have to check GPSResults) and the tide was high enough that I could sail over the sand bar which made for nice runs back to the car.

Looks like the weather is finally changing back to more 'typical Bonaire" meaning 15-20+ knot winds and clear (rather than rainy) skies. Bring it on!!

Roo commented:

That's more like it Barton! Great to hear the winds coming back, white Christmas up here in the Gorge. Itching to get back on the water so will have to live vicariously through your exploits until then. Hope you and your wife have a hot and sunny Christmas.

I commented:

Thanks Roo! I'm looking forward to having some positive sessions to document. Making some jibes didn't hurt either :) . I was beginning to get a little grumpy with the constant rain and inconsistent wind. An hour round-trip drive just to watch rain squalls blow through and shut off the wind starts getting kind of old after a month or so...

Merry Christmas to you, Roberta and Julian. White is nice, for a very limited time :).

I commented:
Roo, I had an amusing (for me) interaction with a fellow windsurfer today while rigging the Retro. He came over to my rigging spot to mention that he too had a Retro 7.5. I made some comment about doing some tuning on the rigging and he said he would be glad to help me :). I suggested I thought I knew what I wanted to do and proceeded to downhaul the sail WAY PAST the Sailworks 'gear cog'. He was appropriately shocked and said I had just taken away 25% of the power. I told him your observation that Bruce Peterson and Dale Cook were big guys and therefore could handle/liked power higher in the sail. Downhauling lowered the power point for a person my size and made the sail more controllable. He kind of wandered off at that point. I had some personal smug satisfaction of later blasting past him on one of the runs to the north (he was on a 6.0). He sailed back to the rental area.

Roo commented:
Amazing how many experts you bump into on the beach. I'm sure he learned a lot after you passed him! Is that a new PB on the 7.5?

I commented:
Roo, yes, new PB's for the 7.5 in 2Sec, 5x10, as well as strongest winds. Hmmm, suppose there is a message buried here in the data? :) 

Roo commented:
Message is never listen to experts on the beach....

I commented:
Roo, my message is to sort the real experts from the wanabees. You have proven to be the real deal.

Roo commented:

Thanks Barton, I just think of myself as a lazy old beachbum that wanabee a speedsailor!