Day #13 on the lake

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Max Temperature 90 °F / 32 °C
Wind Speed 5 mph / 11 km/h ()
Max Wind Speed 16 mph / 26 km/h
Max Gust Speed 30 mph / 48 km/h

Ahhhh, another day in 5.5 paradise!

I left the house this morning, circled the block and came back for the 95 liter Tempo. I arrived at Cook at 11:30 to find Bob H. rigging 7.5 for his newish IMCO (his only board). Bob is 230 lbs. and at least 6′5″, so his gear choice wasn’t a total shock, but it sure looked like 5.5 to me. I rigged and went out on the Tempo. My mastfoot was too far forward, so I sailed to the other side and adjusted it. Yes, much better. The Tempo and 5.5 were great when powered up, but there were a lot of holes and I sank pretty bad in them. After about four 1-mile runs, I came in for the Fanatic.

Bob had said he was going to sail in front of the beach, but he was nowhere in sight. I had robbed the fin screw off the Fanatic to put a 13.5″ Wardog ATX on the Tempo, which had felt good and pointed well, but the screw suddenly did not fit any of my Trimbox fins! I went through the entire bag of fin screws and nothing worked. The one screw that I had been using fit the ATX, so I stuck that on the Fanatic and went out and it was good, but there were still holes. There were times today when I wished I was on 7.5, but it was incredibly gusty and 30 seconds later I was powered or overpowered on the 5.5.

Robyn showed up with her new shortie, but had forgot to bring shoes. I gave her a waterstart lesson anyway and she did really well. She almost got up a couple of times and once went over the handlebars very nicely. :) That did not freak her out, she was ready for more.

In the meantime, Bob H. finally appeared. He had headed toward the dam, it really picked up and he got stuck. He said he wasn’t even considering jibing and I agreed, but later I nailed one jibe, did two pretty good ones and blew a bunch more. My tacks were good today and I tacked about half the time.

It picked back up and looked like it would stay up, so Robyn went to the beach and I sailed for about an hour. When I returned, there was a note saying she had gone for shoes. I didn’t expect her to return, but she did and was ready for more waterstart lessons. She got all the way up a couple of times, but it was really blowing and she went over the handlebars each time; but I think she’s got it and she was really stoked! We’re all doing it again tomorrow.

Man, I’m tired and happy.