Nina's World Record

Yesterday was long distance day here in Hatteras. I was hoping to sail 24 hours, but the wind did not play along. When I wanted to start at midnight, the wind was marginal - 14-17 mph. I went out with my 8.5 and 117 l slalom board, doing short runs since I was the only one on the water and had not marked the various staked and scaffolds in the water. After 90 minutes, the wind dropped below the planing threshold - time to get some sleep.

We got up early in the morning, but had to wait for the wind to pick up. I was back on the water shortly past 8 am on the same gear; Nina joined me soon on a 5.7 / 100 l Skate combo, and Dean showed up a bit later, too. Nina was aiming for the #1 spot in the individual distance ranking for women on the GPS Team Challenge, which stood at 172 km. She sailed straight through for 5 hours before taking a lunch break. I sailed about the same time, but with two small breaks to drink something.

In the afternoon, the wind picked up, and so did the chop. I downsized to my Hawk 95 with a KA Koncept 5.8, Nina switched to the Goya One 77 with a 5.0 Ice sail. She would have preferred something smaller (4.0 would have been enough), but did not feel like re-rigging, so she held on. I don't know how she did it - I have having my hands full with my cambered 5.8 m sail, and I outweigh her by 50%. The chop was a bit brutal, and even the flats were not very flat anymore. Nina sailed another 3 1/2 hours for a total of 202 km - here is the woman's individual ranking for distance on the GPS Team Challenge:

Yes, that is my lovely wife right on top of the rankings! At least by the Team Challenge sailors, this is considered a World Record:

My distance for the day was 270 km (168 miles), barely more than what Nina sailed. I had to take several breaks in the afternoon, and stopped early because (a) I did not feel in control in the chop anymore, and (b) we had an invitation to dinner at the neighbor house where Mike Burns, Chris Eldrige, Chachi, and the Feddersen's reside. That was enough to reclaim the US distance title from Dean:

This probably will be short lived, since Dean sailed well into the dark; however, he was pouting at me when he came in, and refused to tell us his total distance, or share his GPS files. Well, the 270 km are also good enough for the #3 spot in the distance rankings for 2012, where 595 sailors have posted so far:

I did not realize how close I was to the #2 spot - one more run out to the reef would have been possible.. but the #1 spot was out of my reach yesterday.

Nina's World Record distance and my distance were enough to get the Fogland Speedsurfers the #1 spot in the distance rankings for the month:

The month is only half over, so other teams may still push us down a bit - but for now, we are happy (and still have hope that the total will go up when Dean posts).

In the process, both Nina and I also improved out personal bests for the nautical mile and 1 hour - not bad for a day of sailing :-)

So, you may ask, how are we feeling today? Well, surprisingly good! No blisters (despite wearing no gloves), no problems walking, and my back that has given me problems recently is feeling better than it has for a week. The tendons in my lower arms are protesting a bit since I just could not keep all my weight in the harness at all times in the chop, but that will go away. Nina's feet hurt a bit, maybe because she sailed the whole afternoon on an 18 cm freestyle fin; and her back is a bit sore (she used a waist harness the entire day). But that won't keep us from sailing today! Something different today - probably freestyle, since we have some of the best amateur freestylers on the East Coast there on the water to inspire us.

That's that for now. Congratulations again to the gorgeous, world record holding Nina!