May 25 - Lac Bay

5,048 km

Bonaire, Lac Bay, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, MFC KP360

Best Alpha of the year to date.

Slowly getting the timing down for the planing step jibe. Had a couple of jibes in the mangrove area fail because the wind ripped the boom out of my hand on the sail flip. Clearly need to be more conscious about having a firm grip. For the starboard tack jibe, I'm getting better at changing the foot stance and starting to move the sail in to position to flip it at the same time. Need to stay low and do the foot change quickly in order not to  change the boards attack on the carve. Need to be more aggressive on rail pressure to tighten the arc of the carve so I can flip the sail sooner while I still have good board speed. On port tack, the same approach applies. I'm coasting through the exit of the speed runs rather than aggressively initiating the planing jibe. The good news is that I made more port tack jibes today, so some improvement seen.

May 22 - Lac Bay

5,024 km

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, Black Project WeedSpeed 40 degree 38 cm

Well powered the entire session

Notes to self:
I need to start trying to jibe in the southerly runs while still close to max speed. On the northerly runs, I need to start the jibe downwind run further out as I keep getting into water that is too shallow. Also, on the southerly runs, if I am not going to return to the launch site, I should be at least 5 meters from the sand bar as the water is actually a little smoother out there.

May 18 - Lac Bay

5,004 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2014 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 2015 iSonic 90, Black Project Weed Speed 40 degree 34 cm

 Since I started GPS recording for GPSTC I have now sailed 5,000 km ( 3,107 miles ) .

May 14 - Lac Bay

4,983 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2014 Sailworks Retro 5.5, 2015 iSonic 90L, 2018 Black Project Weed Speed 40 Degree 34 cm

Nicely powered and the ride on the iSonic was actually pretty comfortable without a lot of harsh pounding.

Took a slightly different route for the NM. Seemed to be about as fast but without having to do the major downwind in the bigger swells. This approach provided more of a beam/broad reach across the swells. Will probably use this route in the future.

May 13 - Lac Bay

4,961 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2014 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 1992 Hi-Tech 8'4" SVF Gorge Wave

Nice consistent wind and well powered. Good day of practice. Only downside was that this board/fin does not want to point into the wind as much as I need it to after I make a slingshot run going south in order to get in position for another run. Without the slingshot, it could probably hold position without too much of a struggle. Was a little bit of seaweed on the incoming tide and the Fox fin does not shed the weed. Tomorrow I think I'll go with the iSonic 90 and the 34 cm Weed Speed 40 fin.

Slowly getting in shape. 20+ km of distance does not leave me completely exhausted now...

May 11 - Lac Bay

4,939 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2014 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 1992 Hi-Tech 8'4" SVF Gorge Wave

Fun session on the Gorge Wave especially the downwind run in the swells. 

May 8 - Lac Bay

4,914 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2014 Sailworks Retro 6.5, 1990 Hi-Tech pintail 8'9" 

Fully powered, especially around 1300. Not fast but comfortable sailing in decent sized swells.
Jibing was interesting in that I realized the foot straps on this board are much closer together than on the iSonics and because of the narrow tail, it was really easy to stall the board with too much weight on the tail. The downwind nautical mile was interesting in the swells...

May 2 - Lac Bay

4,894 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.8, 2015 iSonic 107, 2018 Black Project WeedSpeed 40degree 38 cm. Wind: East about 15 knots.

Lots of Sargassum weeds in the water. First time on the WeedSpeed. Worked well as long as I was at above about 12 knots board speed when I hit a patch of Sargassum. At sub-planing speeds the weeds collected on the fin and would not shed off.

April 29 - Lac Bay

4,872 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.8, 2015 iSonic 107, Drake 38 Wind: 14 - 17 knots

Practiced pumping skills to get on a plane - it worked!

Jibing slowly improving, need to work on foot pressure exiting the jibe to reduce rounding into the wind. Also need to start the sail flip a little earlier (I think).

April 27 - Lac Bay

4,849 km

Lac Bay, Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

2018 GA Phantom 7.1, 2015 iSonic 107, MFC KP360.

Underpowered most of the session (1510 to 1612)