We went sailing in Fogland yesterday. The place lived up to it's name, it was foggy most of the time. The wind was ok initially, got better later. Here's my lovely wife having fun:
You can actually see the fog in the background.
I used my 8.5 sail the entire time, and started out with the big board. Applied something I had learned in an ABK camp - sail chi to get a sail back up when it was falling towards the water during a tack:
When the wind picked up a bit and I was too lazy to rig smaller, I put the 8.5 m V8 onto my Skate 110. The board specs list 7.5 as the max, but the 8.5 worked without problems, partially thanks to a 34 cm fin instead of the 24 cm stock fin. I even got the best speed of the day on the board, but that may have just been a lucky gust. I'll need to work on the jibes with this combination, though. Here's a short movie:
Most of the jibes on this combo were dry, but none were pretty (unlike the big board jibes, where most GPS jibe scores and min speeds were quite ok).
A highlight of the day was when I tried a body drag, and managed to get back onto the board afterwards. It was a short drag and a scramble back up - but it still counts! I tried one more time, and almost made the second one, too. The body drag is definitely a trick that works well even with a big sail, and the big board helped during the scramble back up. It had been on my to-learn list for the recent Bonaire camp, and I tried it a few times. The tips that Derek gave me were in my head and definitely helped me. Looks like I learned more in Bonaire than I thought, after all.
2025 Ports Guide
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