Max

Saturday was bright and sunny with the wind ESE. I arrived at the causeway around 2 and a lot of windsurfers were showing up. Art was out on a 7.5 and looking south it seemed I would have to rig an 8.5 which I wasn't thrilled in doing. So I thought I would wait and see if the wind would come up some. Their were two young windsurfers, Max and Jake, buzzing around and it was fun watching them. I started talking to their mother, Jennifer and she said they just moved here from Aruba. The kids are into kite boarding as well. I shot some photos but then my batteries died. Ron showed up and he rigged a 9.0 and I rigged my 8.5 on the formula board. We went down to the House of Refuge and I was wishing I was on my 7.0 and the 118L board. So I ran the channel a few times and it was fairly flat next to the sandbar. I ended up putting the 8.5 on the 118L board and Ron and I sailed under the bridge and up to Jensen causeway and back.

Jake

Brian enjoying an afternoon on the water with his dad.

I had expectations of being on a 7.0 or smaller today but it was definately an 8.5 day. Dino was out at noon on his 8.4 and was running from bridge to bridge. Ron was finishing up on his 9.0 when I arrived. Earlier he made a run from from the causeway to the inlet and then back north under both bridges and then back to the causeway! I measured it on google earth and thats about 14 miles. I was feeling to sore to rig so I started shooting some pictures.
Ernesto was there with his son Brian and another youngster with a curly head of hair. I was amazed how well Brian is doing. Check out the photos below.

click photo to enlarge

Wednesday was good. I rigged a 7.0 on my 118L bic and spent two hours out at the House. I was having a blast on flat water making some real nice jibes and then Dino shows up. He was riding his 92L JP slalom board with a 6.2 sail and blows past me, that board is sick!
Thursday the wind was lighter, Rick was on an 8.5 and Art was on a 7.5. Art said he really flattened out his sail and could have been on a 6.5. So I rigged my 7.0 and ended up schlogging down the channel. Rick came blasting by showing me the error of my ways. Once I got past the spoil island I headed over to the House. The wind was filled in enough so I could get up on plane. I spent most my time trying to learn how to do a duck jibe. I could get to the new side of the boom OK but my front foot would get hung up in the strap. One time I was able to complete the jibe without falling in, that was exciting.
It looks like we will have 3 - 4 more days of wind, courtesy of hurricane Igor. The wind is forecasted to clock around to the NE by Monday in the 16-24 mph range.