We sailed from about 11:30 to 2:30, with a couple of longer breaks. It was high tide when we started, which gave some nice chop together with the 25 mph SW wind. Funny how much more difficult everything gets when conditions are different from normal - we usually sail flat water in less wind, so this definitely needed some getting used to. I was nicely powered with a 5.5 Matrix (first time on it, nice sail) and my small board (JP 96). My wife was on a 4.2 on her 116 l Screamer with a 39 cm fin. She got quite a few comments on the large sizes, since everyone else was out on small wave or freestyle boards. She did quite a few involuntary jumps, too. But when the wind calmed down later, she was often the only one planing and going upwind. If only I could loose 60 pounds, maybe I can keep up with her ...
I tried the WindMeter iPhone app today. Like the Peconic Puffin, I found it to be rather accurate. It was showing 25-26 mph when the iWindsurf reading was about the same. Had to hold it up for longer than I thought (maybe half a minute) for the reading to go up, though.
While on my small board, I played a bit with the chop, which at points was pretty close to breaking waves. Looked at the GPS tracks later, and did not see any of the turns. Perhaps it's time to check out a ShadowBox? Nice marketing thing they did with the highest backloop contest - love the videos.
Looking at my GPS results from last years technology, I noticed that I got my best speeds near the end, after switching to a 7.0 sail and a 120 l board, and sometimes having to pump to get planing. The chop had gone down quite a bit by then, which is probably why I was going faster.
It was nice to see a few windsurfers show up - there were usually 3-5 surfers on the water, plus a few kiters. Very nice to see Martin from the Cape Cod camp again. He missed the good wind, but worked on his heli tacks and other light wind stuff - because every day of sailing is a great day of sailing!
