Jan 22 - Lac Bay

4524km

Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.8, 2017 iSonic 127, Drake 44   Wind: 10-13 knots

Had enough wind on first run (1340) but had difficulty finding rear strap. Dumped it twice. Second time dumped in a manner that completely filled the luff sleeve with water. Good News. I was able to clear the sail in deep water and waterstart.

Second run the wind was just too light for me to get on a plane (1500)

Jan 21 - Lac Bay

4519km

Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 7.5, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38   Wind: 12-16 knots

First attempt about 1320, second attempt about 1600. Very underpowered both times.

Marc sailed in the morning and had good wind. Is there a lesson to be learned here?

Jan 20 - Lac Bay

4512km

Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 7.5, 2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38   Wind: 15-23 knots

First session about 1350

Overpowered on the 7.5 for the first couple of runs. The 5.5 was good once I got past the sandbar. A little underpowered getting started...

Jan 18 - Lac Bay

4500km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 2015 iSonic 90, MFC-KP 360   Wind: 15-19 knots

Was a little underpowered on first run (about 1225) and had trouble getting on a plane. Next runs were a little better. I stopped to rest and decided to go home to get my smartphone in order to try to get data from Taty's phone. Stopped at Marc van Brockhoven's house to also try to get data from his Garmin Fenix 5. Had issue with .fit file not containing any speed data and .gpx exports being very noisy and essentially useless.

Jan 17 - Lac Bay

4494km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 7.5, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake Carbon 38   Wind: 13-17 knots (1530 to about 1700)

Nicely powered. Good runs with acceptable chop. The last couple of runs I concentrated on putting more weight on the harness, less strain on the arms. Worked very well. Will have to concentrate on this more in order to get longer sailing sessions. 

One issue I had was jibing the larger sail. Seemed like when I carved the jibe, by the time I could flip the sail without backwinding, the board would stall.

Jan 13 - Lac Bay

4481km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 2015 iSonic 90, MFC-KP-340 fin,   Wind: 17 knots

17 knots is not enough for this setup. Should have rigged the 6.5 but thought the wind bump would be stronger... did a lot of slogging. Fortunately, the iSonic 90 is not a sinker for me.

Jan 12 - Lac Bay

4478km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 2015 iSonic 90, MFC-KP-320 fin,   Wind: 17-19 knots

After all my talk about just riding the Gorge gear for the softer ride, etc. Today looked like a day with light winds (sub 15 knots( so I would be using either the iSonics or Magic Ride. I took the Hi-Techs off the car and opted just to use the iSonics and figured it would be the 107 but took the 90 along for the ride.

Did some quick grocery shopping enroute and arrived at the beach with winds of 18-19 knots. A new friend of mine (Mark) was on a 5.2 Simmer and an 85L board and was ripping. OK then, 5.5 and iSonic 90. By the time I was rigged, the wind had backed off to 12-13 knots. I hung around for quite a while, finally decided to call it a day. As I was derigging, the wind started to pick up. Re-Rigged the 5.5. First run out was marginal (probably 17 knots) but by the third run, I had all I could handle going over the chop. Funny thing is that the iSonic 90 didn't feel all that different from the Hi-Tech in terms of ride, other than the board is lighter and quicker. As a plus, made 2/3 of my jibes and would have made 3/3 but lost my grip on the boom on the second run. The iSonic 90 actually jibes very similar to the Hi-Tech :) .

The extra speed made the runs back to the launch beach a thrill - guess I'll be riding both types of boards for a while...

Jan 11 - Lac Bay

4471km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 1990 Hi-Tech 8'9", Wind: 18-20 knots

Wind was a couple knots lighter today and it was very evident when sailing. 17 or 18 knots is the absolute minimum for me on the 8'9" when using the Retro 5.5. Got to practice the sinker hula a couple of times when I sailed into a wind lull.

On the plus side, made a port side jibe. On starboard side jibes I find I am carving hard, flipping sooner than I used to and then having to very quickly change feet position or end up sailing switch stance for a little ways. I probably need to lean farther forward and would be able to flip the sail and change feet position almost simultaneously.

Jan 10 - Lac Bay

4458km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 1990 Hi-Tech 8'9", Wind: 21-26 knots Gust in rain squalls to 40 knots

My new focus is on having fun rather than going for PBs. Today was a good day for fun. Fully to overpowered on the Retro 5.5 and the 8'9" board. Sure glad I kept these old Gorge boards.for days like today. Narrow and heavy, they stay nicely glued to the water, even with some reasonably large chop (18 - 24 inches?). Speed is slow but fast enough to get my full attention in the bigger chop. What I'm finding interesting is that I make 9/10 jibes on the Gorge boards and about 1/10 jibes on the slalom gear...

Just happy to be on the water. Yesterday I had a chat with a fellow that I've know for about five years. He used to be an avid windsurfer, spent the winters surf sailing in Baja. The past five years have been somewhat painful to watch as his body has slowly refused to cooperate any more. He gave up sailing a couple of years ago. He is in his late 80s so I still have some time left...

On a side note: the GW60 watch band broke today as I was putting on the watch so I fortunately did not lose it. It now gets to pretend it is a GW52 and reside in an arm pouch... When these GPS units die, I'm reverting back to cheap cell phones and GPSLogit.

Jan 8 - Lac Bay

4448km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 2015 JP Magic Ride 118, 40cm fin , Wind 14 knots

Got in a couple of runs. Decently powered but took me a couple of runs to get comfortable on this board, which I have not sailed for about 4 years. Took a break to rest my arms. Bad idea as the wind faded for the rest of the day...

When jibing I have to remember to keep my weight forward and my feet forward from where I normally place them on the iSonic 107 as the tail of the Magic Ride does not have nearly the flotation of the iSonics

Jan 1 - Lac Bay

4437km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 7.5, 2017 iSonic 127, Drake Carbon Race 44  Wind: 10-12 knots

Today was putz around time. Wanted to see what the lower limit for wind speed and planing sailing might be. Seems that 12 - 13 knots is probably the limit for me, even on the big gear. Might have had a little more success with the Phantom 7.8 but I doubt it. Caught a small gust on the mangrove side and planed briefly. The good news is the Isonic 127 is plenty floaty so wasn't much of a struggle to get back to the launch area.