4434km
Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands
2015 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 1990 Hi-Tech 8'9", 2015 iSonic 107, MFC KP-RC 360 Wind: 16 - 19 knots
Today was a day of marginal decision making...
I'm not a morning person but decided that I should sail the morning winds, come home earlier and accomplish something on the house. Bonaire seems to have two peak wind periods, about 10-noon and 1530 to half an hour before sunset. This means I needed to be rigged about 1000. Not a chance. Finally rigged at 1130 just in time to watch the wind slowly die. But, I was not to be deterred from sailing the 6.5/Hi-Tech combo, certainly something as trivial as not sufficient wind :). So out I went, suckered by a little gust, I made it to the middle of the bay before hitting a big lull and plop, into the water I went as the 8'9" is pretty much a sinker for me unless I have some power. I had a casual drift for about five minutes until I got a gust strong enough for me to waterstart. Made it to the mangrove area. Waited for another gust and was able to semi-slog back to the launch area. By then I was in the noon wind lull. Too light for this setup but figured maybe the iSonic 107 would work. It did, with enough pumping I could get it onto a plane, and then things were fine. I even made a decent jibe in the mangrove area but it seemed the wind was continuing to drop. Screw it. De-rigged and packed up as I wasn't going to wait a couple of hours for the chance of an afternoon wind bump - the wind bump hit just as I finished packing up... Oh well. Got some exercise.
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