Monday, September 10, 2012

Quick update

Just a quick update - there are some readers who complain if I don't write for too long...

Things are still quite busy here - lots of boxes to unpack, gadgets to hook up, cable company phone calls to do, and so on. I still have not found the time to prepare the jacuzzi for use! Well, the wind is partially at fault - I did get three sessions since the last blog entry 6 days ago. Nina was with me for the first session - Kalmus in light rain, but fantastic winds (4.5 & 5.5 m sails). But two days ago, she had to fly to Germany on a family issue, so I had to sail alone on Saturday and today. Saturday was nice, sunny, full power on 5.5 (which still feels small after sailing 8.5 all summer long), with a Sea Street Beach start. 90 minutes of fun; lots of other Fogland Speedsurfers where out, too, and set several new personal bests.

Today's wind forecast looked questionable, with just 20-21 mph N-NW predicted. NW can often be funky here, coming in lower than expected - but not today. I had to do a bit of work and run some errands in the morning, but then drove 35 minutes to Skaket, where Ron had promised to show up. When I arrived, the wind had dropped to 14, gusting to 19, so I rigged my 6.5 and took my Skate 110 with a big fin. Well, the wind picked up again before I made it out onto the water, and I was planing from the first moment on. Ron soon joined me, both of us sailing in long wetsuits, since the north wind felt chilly after all those hot summer days. Lots of fun - Skaket is just a great B&J place. In today's wind direction, long runs parallel to shore were possible. I kept mine at 2 km or less, but 5 km runs would have been no problem. A great spot for distance surfing!

I somehow had not rigged properly, and my sail felt too big as the wind picked up into the low 20s, gusting to 30. I switched down to a smaller board (Hawk 95) which helped a bit, but the chop also got higher and more chaotic, so I called it a day after less than 2 hours. Back home and some more work...

No wind in the forecast for the next couple of days, which I like, since there is soo much to do. Thursday may be ok if the wind comes in above forecast, as it has done a lot recently. There is some hope for the ABK clinic weekend along the same lines, but it's still a few days out, so things can still change. However, it looks like we'll have three days of sun and decent temperatures :-)