Thursday, June 4, 2020

The Sleeves Come Off

This spring on Cape Cod has been a bit chilly, but that's finally over. The water in the middle of Nantucket Sound now shows temps of 60F, and it feels warmer near shore. Time for 2 mm short sleeve suits! That's what I used yesterday for a 2 hour foil session, and it was warm enough - despite plenty of crashes and a few times where I had to wait for wind when waterstarting. Here are the tracks:

The wind would not have been great for windsurfing, dropping from 22 to 14 and then going back up for 20 for a little while. But the foil has a larger range, so I was fine on the 5.0 the entire time, with just a couple of minutes of shlogging when the wind was lowest. Nina eventually joined me in Hyannisport Harbor, and really liked the flat water. She did a few nice foil jibes, including a duck jibe that she planed through, and almost foiled through. I worked on my tacks, after seeing how foil racers can actually plane through tacks. I did not get anywhere close to planing through, but it still felt cool to carry a couple of knots through the entire turn.

With the wind playing the typical early-summer up-and-down games, we've been foiling a lot, and it has been a blast. One time when I was just getting going on the foil, a kite surfer was coming my way. When he saw me, he pretty much came to a dead stop to let me get going, even though we where at least 300 feet away from each other. Probably not necessary, but a very nice gestures, and much appreciated. Thanks!