11am and we're hitting the water, the wind is about 15-18 Knots and It's about to be the best day I've had so far. Not that conditions were anything special, just good comfortable sailing on flat water with consistent wind.
As it was nothing special I rigged my 7.2 and 120lt JP, Straight on the plain and no stopping until I wanted to...It was a good day. We finished up at about 8pm, We were worn out.
The lobster pots were out again today but more then I've seen in the past, I think the local fishermen had it in for us. The pots are normally spaced quite evenly and in some sort of line down the coast, you could always pick a path between them. Not today...Random spacing and at varying locations out to sea. It was nothing short of a mine field, you could get through ok with a small wave or weed fin....A 34cm freeride fin had no chance.
Going upwind has always been my Achilles' heel, I have never been able to get upwind as much as the average sailor...Today that came to an end. Today I finally worked out a technique that suited my sailing style, I've read every book and watched every DVD on the subject, no one thing really worked for me...But I've now got it worked out.
Cranking upwind, I've got the lobster pots to thank for that...If you can't get up wind you loose so much ground down wind trying to miss the ropes. You just end up in no mans land, and with the long walk of shame back. Why not just sail back out you say...Well you could...but sailing into a sun that is setting...you cant see anything, including the ropes your trying to miss because of the bloody glare. When you leave the beach you pick a marker to sail to, this will guide you on a safe course out through the ropes, on the way back in you can pick out the floats on the ropes, you sail back in as high upwind as you can point...Straight for one of the floats. As you approach the float you bear away so you skim past the float on the down wind side, this gets you past the rope on the pot down wind of you and safely through the first lot, the ropes on each pot are about 20-25 meters long, Don't think you safe if your between 2 floats...you may get through, but you may not. If you catch a line It would result in a nasty catapult or at worse tear out you fin box. Once past the first you bear away again and get as much speed as you can to crank upwind to the next float, repeat this process until you have a clear sail to the beach. A lot of hard work you say but it has helped me fix a problem I've had for a while.
Next is the gybe...planning one that is, I'm going to work on this for the rest of the trip. I need to crack it before I go home....It's my goal for this trip and I haven't started on it yet.
Time to get on with it.
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