Boardsailing
by May and Bill
Boardsailing adventures, here
(near our home in Stuart, Florida) and all-about.
Monday, 28th May, 2007 ( USA's
"Memorial Day" ): went out boardsailing for a couple of hours,
today, it was VERY NICE. I could have used a couple more
knots of wind, but it was still very nice. Used the Tropix
9' 2" / 2.77 meter board, my Neil Pryde 6.0 (3-camber) sail... - VERY
GOOD DAY I found even MORE sandbars - ran aground
frequently (did a LOT more walking ( the whole day went like
this:: sail fast, run aground, walk some more, sail fast, run
aground, walk some more, rinse, repeat (for 2 hours).
- I chose NOT to go hang-gliding today, but it turns out I'll go
tomorrow (very early) - my new glider has arrived in Groveland...
Friday, 25th May, 2007: - I
sent back my DaKine boardsailing harness,
today, for replacement. I'd gotten an e-mail from them saying
that the 'failure' (or larger image) was definitely 'materials
and workmanship' so I'll get a brandy-new-harness from them. -
Great deal, but it will mean 2 weeks of no boardsailing (unless I use
one of my Kiteboarding harnesses)... - but that's not a 'bad-deal' -
I've got more boardsailing gear and kiteboarding gear so depending on
the wind I can still do either?
MORE WIND TODAY (Thursday, 24 May, 2007)
- was NOT as good as yesterday,
but because of several 'broken things' I spent the 2 1/2 hours
today on Ms. May's OLD (Seatrend 2.69 meter long) flat bottomed /
Tuttle tanged-skeg (4" fore and aft, 13" deep (no where NEAR as good an
'up-wind' skeg), The supposed 15-18 knots was NOT there but
on the other hand I went much further afield, ran aground (again)
several times (with a 3" deeper skeg) and generally worked MUCH HARDER,
though I feel less tired (on the other hand the bloody-calluses /
blisters (especially on my left hand) are MUCH GRANDER,
today... I spent quite some time 'slogging' back to the
park on this 89 liter board. It's supposed to blow 22 knots
but that's after dark. Tomorrow still looks good about 11:30 til
about 2:30 - maybe we'll try it again then? Saturday and Sunday look
'boring' - so maybe I'll go to Groveland and fly my new glider some
(this assumes it arrives today or tomorrow?)
No pictures, today, sorry; also didn't take the GPS with
me. However, I went much further east and south than
the track-log below shows. This board / skeg combination do not
point nearly as well as the other board / skeg.
Did, however, run into some photographer who works for the Palm Beach
Sun (or some newspaper) and was reporting on and taking pictures of the
'new park'... - Maybe he'll send me some images - and if he does, I'll
post them here.
MORE AWESOME WIND TODAY (Wednesday, 23
May, 2007) - was even
better than yesterday - except I broke my skeg (it was ONLY 19 years
old) and my NEWLY INSTALLED "Skeg-Box" - UGH UGH UGH I guess
I'll
have to go kiteboarding tomorrow, huh? it'll take more than
overnight to fix this thing, plus I'll have to order a new skeg-box -
since this one broke (and it was MONDO BIG / HEAVY) I'm reluctant to
put another one in just like this one - plus - I guess I'll have to get
a new skeg, too, since the new skeg-box will not fit this skeg?
anyway - here's a small-version of the track-log - and you can - as
always - click on it for the larger version...
AWESOME WIND TODAY (Tuesday, 22
May, 2007) - and it was LATE (after I
went to see my eye-guy - and get a 'good-report' and the 'promise' of
more 'freebie' contacts when I lose the ones I have (that I only use
boardsailing and kiteboarding) - and I ordered some new glasses for
hang-gliding (they are NOT Polaroid - so I CAN see my instruments?!
ANYWAY _ the wind today was terrific (maybe even better than terrific)
and it's not supposed to drop below 16 knots for the next 72 hours
(gusts to 30-35 knots) - so - well - we'll have to do something about
the blisters on my hands and my right foot doesn't fit very well in the
foot-strap ? Maybe tomorrow I'll do some kiteboarding - and
give other parts of my body a chance to wear-out too!
AND I went in a 'new place' - this new 'park' underneath the west end
of the new-bridge (over the Intracoastal Waterway (quite near where our
old house was on "Sewalls Point). This is a WONDERFUL
small park (parking for about 40 cars (some in the shade (at certain
times of the day (see the above picture of the Toyota Mini-Van - parked
in the shade!). Parking is less than 20
meters from car to the
water. Recently planted grass to rig your sails
on.... - Pictures taken on Wednesday, 23rd. -
a (small) track-log here - click the small image above for a
much-bigger-version. You can see a LOT of sand-bars -
only SOME of which I ran aground on, (some I did NOT run aground
on) - but the tide was going DOWN DOWN DOWN in the almost two
hours I was on the water - so - well - maybe next time I go I'll go at
HIGH TIDE?!
anyway - excellent wind, today - more reports later!
me
finthings (<=== not
necessarily for 'public' consumption - fairly technical - read at your
own risk)
last updated: 18:50 p.m. on
Monday, 28 May, 2007; revID: 1g
(in
Stuart, Florida)
