Caribbean Crap Wind!!

Finally got some sailing in today! It really reminded me of the Caribbean out there. Crystal clear blue water, warm (well, hot), and some sucker wind. Just enough breeze to lure you out there, but not enough to really get you moving. Super up and down, just like the Caribbean! There were even those weird yellowish-orange weed clumps floating around. But who cares when there's a bit of swell and some nice poofy clouds in an otherwise blue sky? Very pretty out there today. The only thing missing were the rum shacks right on the beach!

Tough schlog out, if you mis-time it.... Stuart, facing a few walls of white waterStuart and I grabbed a morning session down at Isabel's, which lasted about 5 minutes for me. Schlogged out, pivot jibed onto the first wave I saw, got one good backside lip smack, and then proceeded to pearl on re-entry, go over the falls, and break my mast in half... Luckily, it was a nice clean break so the sail came away unscathed. I think that if there had been just a touch more wind, I would have been fine, but as it was, I had nothing to work with. Usually, in that scenario, I just tuck my chin and sheet in as hard as I can so as to rotate halfway through a "forward." That gets the mast to line up at least parallel with the wave. Today, however, with no juice at all, sheeting in just sent me straight forward and jammed the mast straight into the sandbar.... Doh! Heard it snap underwater, too... That's a pretty unique sound, and you always know *exactly* what it is. That didn't deter me, though. I had my surfboard, so I grabbed a few waves while Stuart kept on sailing.

Nice Long Faces. Stuart heads down the line.
I decided to head back down this afternoon, and ended up schlogging for a few hours. Frisco George and a visiting sailor named Takefumi were also out there, nabbing a few waves and enjoying the day. The afternoon session was WAY better than my morning sesh. Both the wind and wave directions were oscillating a little bit, so it kept it interesting. Some sections lined up for big backside smacks, others for some down the line action, and if you were lucky, some would line up for a few hits in both directions! Good, solid, summer-time fun!! Gotta love it!

The swell is supposed to build a bit over the next few days! Not sure about wind, but you never know around here... See ya out there!