Feb 20 - Lac Bay

4,693 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38

Was well powered (to overpowered a couple of times) during the sessions. Chop seemed bigger than normal for some reason.

Time to try a 36 cm or 34 cm fin in these conditions to see if the board is more controllable. Good workout.

Spent some time talking with Bernardo from Berlin (retired engineer). Good chat.

Feb 19 - Lac Bay

4,675 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38

Wind on the light side for this rig combination but once on a plane the ride was great. More cruising than pushing. tide was low so even though I tried to jibe close to the north markers, I still managed to run aground a couple of times. This was partly caused by a slight North cant to the wind causing jibing to be more to the west than normal.

Feb 18 - Lac Bay

4,657 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2015 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 1985 Hi-Tech 9' Carbon Slalom. Wind: 20 G 30 knots. Very heavy rain at times.  Fully powered for first and second launch. OK powered for third but could tell wind was dropping a little by the way the board was starting to feel sluggish. Decided to stop so I didn't have to swim it in... Launched at 14:56, 15:40 and 16:20. Wind gauge gave only sporatic data from 15:00 to 16:00

Feb 17 - Lac Bay

4,648 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38 

Good day. Doing some fine tuning adjustments is helping to minimize the effort required to sail.

Today moved the opening of the foot straps from 4 to 5 (about a 1-2 mm larger opening). Made a huge difference in my ability to get my foot in the back strap.

My approach today was to sail over/back twice and then stop and rest. This gave me a chance to jibe on the port reach. Jibing went decently on the starboard reach. Only made one jibe on the port reach but that was mostly due to running past the wind into the light wind area.

Feb 16 - Lac Bay

4626km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38 Wind: 15 G 20 Knots

Good session. Slowly getting the switching of feet and then flipping the sail down. Jibes are still stall-jibes but at least I'm finally making it around on the slalom gear without falling ...

Feb 15 - Lac Bay

4614km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.8, 2017 iSonic 127, Drake 44

Launched at about 1705 for first run. Second run was at 1745. Between the two runs I swapped out the 'new' Drake rear foot straps with the 'old style' black Drake footstraps that don't collapse as easily. Got catapulted on the first run trying to get into the rear strap. Even with the new straps installed it is still dicey getting into the rear straps. They are not where I expect them and seem to be close to the edge of the board so my heel hits the water while I'm trying to insert my foot.

On the plus side, once in the straps it goes nicely in 13 to 15 knot winds.

Feb 14 - Lac Bay

4609km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38 wind: 15 G 18 knots

Good session. Adjusted harness lines just a tad forward, made all the difference in control effort. I need to pay closer attention to balancing the harness line position.

Getting better at switching the feet BEFORE flipping the sail. Still have trouble getting the front foot out of the strap before rotating the body. 

Did multiple waterstarts with clearing the sail. As long as the chop isn't too big, this is not an issue anymore.

Feb 13 - Lac Bay

4596km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2019 Point-7 AC One 6.2, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38

Launched at 1530, second run at 1545.

Well powered to overpowered. Second run was a little dicey. Stopped to rest and the wind picked up even more. If I had been thinking, I should have gotten out the Hi-Tech Slalom, would probably have been perfect for it...

Feb 12 - Lac Bay

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38

Sailed about 1410, 1630 to about 1705. Underpowered most of the time. Should have been on the 7.8.

NOTE the license plate on the RAV4. A Kuma touch :).