Upwind on the WingFoil

I think this is the farthest I've gone upwind on a wingfoil. I might have gone even farther but I forgot sunglasses as it was cloudy as I headed out in the 23c wind coming from due south. The water is also 23c so I was in an old short sleeved, long leg wetsuit.

Foiling upwind into the south wind by doing a ton of jibes

I decided since it was so warm, that I should again practice tacking up through the narrow channel from the dock. I did much better than yesterday but still falling a few times. The 5m Slick with its boom might be an advantage for tacking and pivot jibes. In total it took 11 changes of direction to get upwind, I think I did 6 jibes (one on the foil!) and 5 tacks to get upwind.

My mostly slow (blue) upwind tacks and jibes
And my downwind (red) 4 foiling jibes on the way home

Once I got out and going, the harness on the Slick also made it easier to point upwind. I went way past Scott and OJs but didn’t dare going past the narrow open, and even so had one sketchy moment watching shoals pass just under my foil.

I avoided the shoal that claimed a skeg years ago on my way upwind
But then went right over it on my way downwind!

I had a fun downwind run with (I counted later from my GPS trail) 22 jibes in a row. I don’t know why I decided to slog way out west past the wind shadow of Mann island, but I managed to get going eventually. I tried setting a max speed for the day: 14.8 knots.

A nice long time on the foil during the first part of my session.

There were 2 guys on a fishing boat taking video of me foiling. Would be fun to see that sometime!

Noteable for today, my first wingfoil duck jibes this year and likely the first ever heelside duck jibe. One hour and 40 minutes, I was a little wobbly by the end but caught some gusts and foiled right to the dock. Great day.