Waiting for fall

I used to love the summer, but this year is different. It's not so much the heat - yes, this summer is hot, but up here in the northeast, we are at least not getting cooked with 100+F weeks, as big parts of the US are.

The lack of wind is a bit more annoying. We had a couple of decent days recently, but it seems the wind we get in a typical fall week is now spread out over a month or more. Maybe it is the combined effect of many small things - dirtier water with more weeds in Fogland; plenty of boats that prefer to anchor so that they are in the way of the maximum number of windsurfers, in a bay that's barely 500 m long; lots of rainy days; and stupid summer colds that sap energy.

But I think what really is killing me is just having to wait. After many weeks of being crazy busy preparing the house for sale and looking for a new house on Cape Cod, we now have to wait about six weeks for the banks to do their things. Just wait, and hope that everything goes as planned with three or more linked mortgage applications and moves. There are plenty of things we'd like to do, like buying new furniture, SUPs (sailable ones of course), maybe a high roof van - but all that has to wait, too, since spending too much now might jeopardize the mortgage. So wait we must, until everything will get crazy again a week or so before the move.

Enough of the negative stuff. We had one great session last week with 12-26 mph winds. Nina actually planed a few times on a 4.5, and had fun with light wind freestyle in the lulls. I went for speed with Dani on our 8.5 resp. 7.5. Bart joined us a bit later, and showed us how it's done on Dani's slalom gear. He sailed way higher angles, planed through all his jibes, looked just fantastic on gear he had never sailed, and easily beat our GPS speeds by a few knots. But it was great being on the water with a much better sailor. We tried to emulate some of the things he did, and probably picked up a knot or two in speed. His much higher upwind angles on very similar gear convinced me that I should also get an adjustable outhaul for my larger sails; but I think simply sailing more with racers, and perhaps participating in a few more races, will make a big difference. Well, just a few more weeks, and the windy season will start, with us living much closer to the water - knock on wood!