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Another fun day. It was a bit windier, and I used my 5.4 all day. At first I used my Carve 111, but my smallest weed fin in a Tuttle box isn't a very swept back fin, and it was picking up a lot of weeds. So, I decided to try the F2 Wave because I have a standard box weed fin that is more swept and the F2 is a standard. It worked a bit better, but still picked up some weeds.
After sailing near the launch at Grassy for a bit, I headed up wind to the Playground with John B. and John-Paul. We took the route below the island and it took me forever to make it up wind. It was just a mess of weeds and trying to point in a brief time (not a long enough reach). I finally made it though, and ripped around with John and John-Paul for awhile. J & JP headed back after about 30 minutes. John was tired and JP had put a hole in his 5.0. I stuck around and sailed with Chester H. for about 30 minutes before we headed down. Chester has big cahones, pointing about 80 degrees off the wind a few times. I was ripping, flying at about 50-60, much farther downwind that I thought smart, and he comes flying by, cutting me off even further down than I thought possible. It was great. We both survived, and it was quite a thrill.
I didn't have a great jibing day, with about a 75% success rate on fully planing jibes (yesterday it was about 95%), and jumps never really panned out. The F2 is a much more lively ride than the Carve, but not really in a good way. I didn't realize how well the Carve sailed in chop until today. Jibing the F2 is much different, too. It just cranks around, puts your knees into your chest and all you do is hope you can get the sail flipped fast enough. It's hard to do because the G's are really upon you!
After sailing until about 7:30 we had some burgers, beer and hot dogs. Grassy is a great place for hanging out. It's largely a dump, but the rigging is close by, it's private and you don't have to worry about the sensibilities of park goers like at other launches. Just one white ass pointed your way as someone changes is enough to show you that!
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