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First day at Grassy Point! Grassy is a place where it's mostly local sailors. Not many vacationers will be found there because the launch isn't as nice as Bird, and there won't be any camping nearby. The wind is good, though, and the chop is nice and manageable. It flows well in rows and doesn't cross and confuse. Grassy is about 15 or so miles from Bird, probably, via Laguna Madre. It's mostly shallow, though I crashed in a deep area once. It was my first real waterstart since I've moved down here (everything else you can pretty much stand up). I didn't have any problems getting going again. Nice to know.
We had a few sailors out. Dick Ward and Roy Tansill were there, along with Alan, Arlene (Dick's wife), Wolfstram(sp?) and Dave. It was okay windy until we got there, then it died for a little bit. It has been the norm for it to continue to die in the afternoons lately, but today it picked back up! I was on the Seatrend Allstar 70 and my 6.5 Sailworks Race for awhile. Those two HATE each other. The 6.5 works brilliantly on the older Screamer, but it just bucks and pulls and is uncontrollable on the Seatrend. I took one launch hooked in that really whacked my wrist. It wasn't a hard slam, but awkward. The wrist is still sore, but not bad. A harder slam in that circumstance might have broken it, though.
Roy and Dick told me to downhaul the sail a little more, and I did. It's an older sail, though, and doesn't open up like the newer ones. It seemed to depower me a bit, but the wind really picked up (to a strong 6.5 or better) and it started to become hard to control again. I put on the Screamer and it ROCKED for about an hour. It was pretty sweet. I hit a few really nice completely planing jibes (port tack again, seems to be my strong side for some reason), caught a couple of bad chop hops (I'm just starting) and in general just drag raced around with Dick. He's a good sailor, and fast. I was proud to be able to keep up with him.
Again I had back trouble, so I'm definitely going to go back to a seat harness. I'll keep the waist harness in case Annie progresses that far. It might be a bit big for her, though. I also ordered a new quiver from Oliver at Cline Street Sailboards. A 7.8, 6.6 and 5.4 Ezzy Infinity. Cross my fingers... I hope they work well with both boards! They will be my first new sails ever, I've always bought used or at least pre-owned before.
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