That sinking feeling

Wind was predicted and I had booked the afternoon off after my big charity AGM on Tuesday. And windy it was! My first session was on my smallest sail used this year, then I had a super fail, and then the highlight was seeing new mom Vanessa get on a board again. Here are notes from the 3 sessions.

My first session was on the Fanatic Freewave 116 and the Duke 5.4 sail that I rigged for the first time this year. The wind meter was showing 18 knots and that we had seen 26 knots for the first time this season. I was overpowered and it took a long time to get comfortable. I worked my way upwind, not making many jibes and no tacks. But I was planing a lot - 75% of the time according to my GPS. When I started heading downwind my confidence and speeds picked up considerably.

After my 35 km session

There was a very noticeable difference in the air temperature at each end of the typical 1 km run. Where the air had gone over more water, it was much colder, and coming back into the harbour where it had gone over the land, it was humid and warm.

Upwind and downwind

Faster toward the end of the session

After a quick lunch and some emails, it looked even windier. I rigged the 4.7 Duke sail and took out my old Axxis 272. It is 95 litres and thus a "sinker" and so I don't use it very often, but had a good session 2 years ago. I took off from the point and had a good run. As I approached the wind shadow of Mann island I decided to turn around rather than heading out like I did for one run in the earlier session.

One good run and then a long swim back!

Pretty good speed for the first run,
and it is faster paddling than swimming

As I jibed I fell in. And then tried to waterstart. And failed. And failed. And failed. Board upside down lightwind waterstart. Fail. Uphaul. Fail. I guess I was lighter back in the late 90's when I used that board so often in the Gorge? 

So after around 500m of flying the sail to drift back, I started swimming another 500m. I walked across one island and then de-rigged the sail on another. The last 500m I paddled on the board like a surfer. I had my SPOT GPS signalling device but didn't use it as I was never in any danger of being unable to return.

Like with the air during my first session, I noticed huge differences in the temperature of the water - cold out in the deep water, warm when I paddled over shallow island. Might be a while till I try that sinker again?

Once back at the Launch Pad, Vanessa, Len and Timo arrived. Vanessa got into one of my old wetsuits, and we headed to the point with her repaired 5.7 and the Skate 108.

Insert Len's photo of Vanessa here!

Sadly the predicted thunderstorm was pending, and Vanessa never got planing. There is always tomorrow! 

Indeed the power was out for a few hours!
But the wind died during Vanessa's session.

The water levels were changing like crazy. Here is the current flowing back out of Pine Bay.

More wind predicted for tomorrow!

Getting used to the new foil

After a nice Sunday breakfast we headed out to the island. The 15c cool north wind had changed to south west.

It seemed so windy that I rigged the 6.2 Duke and the Freewave 116. After walking out to the point, of course there wasn't really enough and I slogged back to the dock and changed to the new Fanatic Stingray 140 and the old NP 6.5 V6 sail.

I got planing on the foil a number of times, getting the hang of pumping the sail better than the day before. And with a steadier wind, I was more comfortable on the new board. I preferred having my back foot in the centre of the board, and tended to have issues rounding upwind the few times I put my back foot in the footstrap. I can tell the wider board will help with jibing though.

Vanessa and Len came out in the boat to put little Timo to sleep. I caught a few runs while they were floating around the bay.

Water was considerably colder, 12c after the 2 days of north wind. But wonderfully clear. I went by one shoal that I was concerned about, and found it was fully 6 feet underwater so I can easily clear it with the foil.

10 km trail in the SW wind

Heart rate jumps a lot when I'm pumping and then
up on the foil

Feeling more optimistic that I will get the hang of this new board. But will definitely be playing with the settings for a while.

The new foil board

I had two session with my new Fanatic Stingray! After dealing with some plumbing issues in the morning, I headed out to the Launch Pad. I installed the longer screws I'd bought and felt good about the connection they make with the board. So it was time to take it out and see how it feels compared to the old BIC Techno 148.

The wind was gusty from the north 5-12 knots, so I decided to use the old NP V6 6.5. It was harder to get up on the foil, not the gradual speeding up of the BIC. I liked the more comfortable footstraps, but once I was really going, it felt like I had to use a lot of pressure on my toes to keep things stable. My runs were definitely shorter than past foil sessions as I found it very challenging. 

Jen got some nice footage though!

First foil on the Stingray 140 from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

The new board with matching sail colour

It was nice to see two sailboats out in the bay, I foiled next to the little Hobie cat for a bit.

There were some weather systems moving through, so I went back in and checked out the weather. Interestingly, the nearby windfarm wasn't operating for the first time in 8 months, but even at a complete standstill, they generate enough interference to look like a local weather cell.

Weather systems and the shut down wind farm still imaging

 

Got up a number of times, but no super long runs...

Water was 15c, air 20c. 3/2 long sleeve for the first session, short sleeved wetsuit for the second.

Since the 6.5 seemed too big during the first session, I headed out for a second session with the Idol 5.6. Maybe it would be easier?

Heading out to the wind...

Vanessa and Len and Timo came out to watch for a few minutes, but it was before I got going. They caught this upwind 360.

Light wind upwind 360 with Timo cheering! from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

I did get going a few times. So I tried turning on the GoPro, but this was the only shot before the battery died.

GoPro fail

2nd session map

I did get one solid km long run -
mostly upwind with my back foot in the centre of the board

Definitely need to get some more time on the new board to see if I get used to the wider board. At least the overfoils didn't result in any spectacular crashes - yet. May need to play with adjusting the foil setup some more.

36 km lunch hour

After my morning conference call I completed my online training called "working from home". Then I read an article about how work from home is really work from anywhere. Well I was still up north and a nice southwest wind was predicted.

So at lunch time I headed out to The Launch Pad with plans to finish setting up the foil and get an hour of windfoiling in on the new board. But as it turned out, the 6mm screws that come with the Fanatic Stingray only go a few threads into the Slingshot Tuttle adaptor. Need to get some longer screws before using the new board.

Oh well, the wind had picked up and the Skate 108 was calling me. I headed out from the point, slogged for a few runs, shortened the boom one notch and started planing consistently.

I went upwind to where the swells make for fun mini wave rides. On my way back downwind I had some great speed runs, and a nice neighbour caught these photos of me as I went by their boat.

I wasn‘t too cold in the 15c air and 15c water. My head did chill a bit the few times my hair got wet, and that kept me from trying many tricks. I was just enjoying the board, sun, and the odd wave to do some turns on.

GPS trail of my lunch session - viewed from SW.
Fun playing in the waves - and skirting between islands.

The most fun part was screaming into our channel and squeaking through the narrow gap on the north point. I don‘t think I've ever done that before.

I kept on having so much fun that I lost track of time... and missed an operations meeting for our work charity - which was easy to reschedule once I was back on shore. Having a great day on the water while there is so much crisis in the world made me even more motivated to work more on charity efforts this week in the city.

That is a lot of km over lunchtime

Speed chart - max speed 45.9 km/h and planing 53% of the time!

Overall I windsurfed almost 36km in under 2 hours. A bit longer than normal lunch but I caught up on emails in the car on the way home! What a great start to the month.

First freestyle day!

Sunday finally had some southwest wind predicted! But I slept through the early morning wind and by the time I was out at the island there wasn't enough wind to foil. So I worked on setting up the new foilboard and doing a bit more cleanup in the shed instead.

Just as it was time to go back for dinner, the wind picked up again and I headed out on the trusty Skate 108 and the Idol 5.6. Even with the sail poorly tuned I still felt comfortable. The boom was squeaking, which was a bit unnerving but I later noticed that my outhaul lines were crossed - a small point but worth fixing for the future.

Smelling wood smoke drifting over the water from a local cottage or sauna made me realize that it was really cold. I saw a chimney smoking downwind from me as well. It was 8c air and 15c water. But I was so excited to be out and and planing feeling super comfortable on a short board that it didn't matter. And my Flashbomb 3/2 wetsuit was nice and warm.

After at least 20 minutes successfully tacking and jibing without falling in at all, I tried a Vulcan. It wasn't so bad falling in, so I tried a downwind and upwind 360 in the straps and fell on both of those too. I kept sailing and then was going to head in. But with the high water I was actually able to plane right to the launch pad and even past it. So I did that twice!

No data from the session as I forgot my GPS watch but I'm likely to remember this perfect first southwest day of the year. I'm guessing it was almost and hour and 20 km since I was planing so much of the time. Luckily my wife caught some photos as I was coming inshore so far.

Planing inshore between islands!

Heading back out - the turbines are facing SW!

Planing again

This is what the weather radar looked like for most of the day. Definitely handy to be out there with gear all rigged in the shed to score the nice hour of wind between systems.

Like the astronauts who left earth yesterday, I felt lucky to be able to escape from so much bad news out there. Not bad, 6 sessions on the water during a difficult May 2020.

Short Saturday foil

The weather systems were passing through all Saturday. I only manged to get out for 35 minutes, this time on the Idol 5.6 with the Techno 148 and the 76cm foil. At one point I'd almost thought there was enough wind to go out on the Skate 108, but sure enough the finicky north wind was tricking me.

I headed out, got going on a few runs and had several overfoils and less success going into jibes than on Friday night. The 5.6 is much lighter though to uphaul and manoeuvre through tacks. I started doing heli-tacks on the slog back upwind. I think I might be doing more of those on the new foilboard once I get that set up as it has a much smaller nose.

Windy had predicted some variable winds, and that was the case. I also used a new site iGetwind which seems to draw your attention more to the various different weather modules that each site bases their predictions off. I need to follow each model a bit more closely to see which one is the most accurate both long and short term.

My session map is below - indeed a quick one.

Another gusty north wind day

30.6 Max speed - a few good runs

Sunday looks promising?

Friday night foil hour

I got some work done in the car on the drive north and then headed out to the island in time for a 5:30 post work windfoil session. I didn't even try and set up the new foil board I just picked up. Just headed out on the BIC Techno 148 with the slingshot 76 foil and the old NP 6.5 V6.

The wind was from due north, and was the typical gusty wind I used to dislike. I would have been using a 9m sail and struggling between the 15 knot gusts and 3 knot lulls.

The gusts make it easy to get up on the foil. I caught some nice kilometre long runs with one run being 1.5 km all up on the foil. I had a few moments where I was sailing hooked in, one handed, both legs straight. I was so relaxed that I had time to look down at the colourful foil with the reflective tape on it beneath me and the tiny thin little wake out behind. On downwind sections everything becomes super quiet. Very cool.

I think I reached a new record top speed on the foil, 33.2 km/h. And that felt pretty comfortable. I also carved into a few jibes after nice long downwind arcs. But the wind was so gusty and my skill is still not there - I wasn't going to complete a jibe. Air was 16c, water a very surprising 18c near shore.

I came back in and enjoyed a hot shower and a having warm room to change in.

Post session smile and rainbow

Nice Goose family on my way out to the island

A very north wind - and warmer than the weather info said

33.2 km/h top speed and 16.8 kms overall

Post session view west

Rainbow over the wind farm

Just a bit of weather nearby

Much warmer than May 18th when the water was 9c!

Earlier in the week I watched a good video by Guy Cribb on footstrap position. I think when I set up the new board I will try having my feet closer together - to stand more upright on the foilboard. And need to centre the foil between the feet.

Guy Cribb windsurf footstrap tutorial

He also had a cool formula for a regular board's fin size: sail m2 size x 5 + 4 = cm fin to use!

Off to sleep now.