That's better

Maybe my complaining worked - we finally got wind again, mid-20s gusting to low 30s. We went to sail Cape Cod Bay from Ellis Landing in Brewster. The spot is better than most spots in the area because the walk at low tide is short (~ 100 m). It's protected by shallow water at the left, so the water is pretty flat, until you get out about 2-3 km. There, at the end of the shallows, you get nice steep rollers, perfect for a little bit of wave play for beginners.

Nina was not so happy today. She was concerned that the many dark patches in the water might be rocks, and hated that the sun was blinding on the runs back in, so you could not see much. Well, all the patches on the outside were no problem, but we both hit the same patch of rocks close to the landing when we sailed back in. Nothing bad happened, we were going slow, and I had both feet out of the straps since I knew the area was shallow. I had not seen any of the rocks, though, because of the low angle of the sun. Judging by the marks on my short (19 cm) fin, the rock must have been very close to the surface. Judging by how abruptly it stopped me, it was not small, either.

On the bright side, I got to sail my Tabou 3S for the first time with a sail that's within its sail range (my Pilot 6.5). The sail definitely was a better fit than the 7.5 freerace sail I used the first time, and I had plenty of fun. The Naia 21 cm fin I used at first felt a bit small, so I changed to my 19 cm MUF Delta, which has a lot more surface area and can take more backfoot pressure. I did not like the spinouts I got with the Delta today, both when going for speed and when playing in the waves; recovery was a bit harder than I remembered. However, the fin was quite a bit faster than the Naia, and it was nice to ride such a short fin in very shallow (and largely unknown!) water. I'll definitely bring this one along for my next trip to Bonaire!

As happens often these days, the wind got really strong when the sun went down, and will remain strong for about as long as it remains dark. With are temps below freezing for the night, night sailing is not an option, but hopefully, we'll still get some 20s tomorrow morning. We'll have to decide what to do - the low temperatures make speed a good choice, but it may be a bit light for that, and bump & jump at Skaket can be lots of fun, too. Decisions, decisions :-)