Palm Beach, Aruba 2/12/13

Last stop on the cruise was Aruba. When sailing this beach it is an offshore wind so standing on the beach it seems real disappointing because there is no wind. However if you look carefully offshore you can see the white caps. I sailed out of the Vela windsurf site which was great because you had a nice selection of equipment to choose from but it was difficult to sail from. The shop is sandwiched between the Mariott on one side and an equally huge hotel being built on the other. They judged the wind to be 18 - 20mph off shore and I usually sail a 6.0 in 21mph. He said to rig one size up because of the gusty conditions. So I went out with a 7.2 on a 121L futura. I was able to get offshore without to much trouble but when I found the wind line I was super powered and the water was pretty choppy. So I decided to sail closer to shore and find the right combination of flatter water and wind speed and this worked pretty well. When sailing directly offshore of the hotels the wind was gusty in places and dead in others, however when sailing north of Vela it was great. The wind would fill in and near this rusted out boat this gentle ocean swell was coming in. Passing the boat you would pick up speed when bearing off on fairly flat water. Returning to Vela was a struggle with zero wind close to shore. This must have been an awesome place to sail before all the high rises were built. I logged 30mph top speed on my gps and sailed for 2 hours. For more photos click here: more photos.