Dec 25

2729km
Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC340. Wind: 14G20 ENE

Allowed my desire to try out the newly tuned iSonic 90 to over-ride what I knew would happen wind-wise. When I arrived at the bay the wind was 18-20 gusting higher. Oh Boy! Of course, by the time I was rigged it had backed off to conditions similar to yesterday. Undeterred, I still sailed the iSonic 90 on the 6.5 rather than re-rigging to the 7.5 and using the iSonic 107. Got in some decent runs but not consistently solidly powered like yesterday. Wind was a little weird compared to normal with a northerly component. Didn't initially want to sail to a northerly part of the bay that is typically difficult to get back to the car from so pointed hard and sailed over to the rental area. Finally gave in and sailed as the wind dictated :).

So how did the iSonic 90 fair? Very nicely in the gusts. Lively, controllable, and easier to carve than the iSonc 107 when jibing. I think when I get solid 18-20 knots the 6.5/90 combination will be a sweet ride where I can practice jibing on a setup that will translate nicely to the new Gorge Gear (Goya Bolt 95 and Retro 6.5 or 5.5). If I get enough jibing practice in these conditions, maybe I will be actually able to sail the Gorge this coming Summer (rather than sail, crash, swim, waterstart, sail, crash, swim, repeat...) :). Oh, and the Sailworks Retro 6.5 rigged to Roo Specs with boom in top outhaul hole handled nicely (and waterstarted easily).

To preemptively answer Roo's next question: is this a PB for the 6.5, the answer is a qualified YES. Qualified because I have had faster 6.5 2Sec numbers BUT they were all GORGE numbers with much higher wind speeds. This IS a PB for 2Sec for Bonaire on either iSonic 90 or iSonic 107:).

Roo commented:

So the tuning seems to be working. Nice to get a Christmas session in.

I commented:
Yes, I would say it is definitely helping. I think the tuning is helping in large part because it is allowing me to rig bigger and still feel stable and comfortable. A couple of 30+ runs in some chop (Floras Lake) last summer also may have adjusted my 'fear factor' calibration and I'm slightly more willing to 'go for it' now (a helmet with a face guard probably is helping also :), yes, I'm a wuss ). If the forecast for tomorrow holds true, I will be testing some of these hypotheses...

Christmas: From the time that Claudia and I moved to Bonaire, Christmas has seemed very weird to us - something about ornaments on palm trees and 85F weather...

Windxtasy commented: 
Hi Barton

My couple of years in Minnesota taught me that the Christmas feeling is more about the weather that you are used to at Christmas time than anything else. Here Christmas is often 100 degrees F, Sunny and dry. Snow looked like the Christmas cards but didn't feel like Christmas at all. In July when the grass was brown, then it felt like it should be Christmas.

90 degrees F here yesterday, sunny and dry with a 20 knot seabreeze in the afternoon. Perfect!