Bonaire Invaded by Long Islanders

Sitting on the beach looking out on the water and along the shoreline, I thought "there's a whole lotta Long Island windsurfers here!"   There's George Pav sailing backwinded.  Chrissy Burns just threw a sail body 360.   God knows what Mike Burns is working on.  There goes George Marr.   And Kurt, Marianne, Susan, Tomas, Jill, Jeannie, the Dana/Andy/Lili/Wilson Napeague axis, not to mention your editor and his lovely wife.  There's even Jay, an OG Puffin from the early 90's Puffin House.   Lotsa New York here.

I have two goals for this trip:   Improve Sally's jibe, and test my long ailing right arm.   So far Sally has been carving into her jibes but grinding to a halt before flipping the sail.  Then yesterday she managed to hold good speed into the carve, plant the heel of her front foot on the inside rail maintaining speed, felt the rig go light as she began the flip...and then she caught her toe on the front footstrap stepping forward and fell.   Still, it's the closest she's come to a full planing jibe ever

Me...after two days of whining about not wanting to use a larger sail, I finally grabbed a 7.3 and windsurfed for the first time since October.    So eager was I to soak in the joy of Caribbean planning that I failed to adjust the boom height or footstraps...comfortable I was not.  After all of seven seconds of planing I realized that I was about to get catapulted.   I don’t think I’ve been catapulted in a year (not in a decade in such cushy conditions.)  I thought “this can’t be happening to me”.    And then it started, a great slow motion waaaaaaaawhomp!     Textbook doofus!    I never got dialed in yesterday, but I did manage enough runs and enough jibes to see that I can sail "some".   Looking forward to more wind and another arm test, and time on the water with the Long Island Fleet, and more jibes from Sally.

Watch the festivities on the Bonaire Wind Cam.  Best forecast for this week is for Thursday and Friday.

Comments

[Bunty]

Great to read you are getting some sun and catapults on the water. Soak up some sun for me please. The wettest winter I can remember therefore messing up alot of would have been epic days windwise. Looking forward to some great sailing on balmy spring days especially as I have now replaced my stolen GoPro and hope to replace the Nikon in the near future.

[Joe]

I agree with Bunty, it's great to read that you and the gang are having fun in the sun...That reminds me, I've got to book a flight for home in the summer.

[bill barber]

mike,glad to here u r back on the water,it tends to heal all wounds-looks like good trades thru early next week and good size swell starting tonite-i'm heading back to pr tonite for more wind& waves-can't understand why da chimps are heading north for questionable condictions when da tropics are goin off-you guys have got da right idea-reapply sunscreen often peace-bb

[Michael]

Thanks Bill...the water does indeed seem to be helping. The arm doesn't feel good, but unlike a few months ago I am able to sail for a few hours.

Good winds forecasted for the coming week at least...enjoy it in Rico!

[scott k.]

hey dr.oz glad to hear u r getting on the water again.nuking here right now but im out for another week.hey when r we gonna see the mrs.on the water?we need more women on the water...jan cant be the only one!btw the dr.oz reference is payback for the tom selleck one...haha.just dropped bill b off at the airport on his way back to rico..hulse goes back sat.r u gonna make it to c.d.s up in n.h.?