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Today was a surprise day. There wasn't much of a forecast for the millionth day in a row, but we went to Bird Island because Annie wanted to windsurf and we had a friend who was going to try it for the first time (she never showed up, though).
We took the kids as usual, and while setting them up in the water Annie got her first jellyfish sting. It was a pretty good one, worse than I've ever had, but she survived it. This was important to know because she's allergic to some things and we weren't sure how she'd react to a sea nettle sting. We dumped some meat tenderizer on it and her pain went away in about 5 minutes. She said it was bearable anyway, but will look into a full lycra suit to protect her in the future.
I got stung a little while later but not as badly.
We have a Windglider (I don't recommend them), and the kids were playing around on it as a swimming platform. After awhile I took the Start and a tow rope and tried to tow them around on it, but it didn't work too well. It would dig the nose and submerge. It would have worked but for that, though.
Annie's windsurfing was good. She went as fast as I'd seen her go and was in control. The wind was almost directly offshore and gusting into the 20's, so it was a good challenge for her. She made it back to the beach fine. Her only problem came with her stance as the wind got stronger. She started standing across the board as if she was running straight downwind. This caused her to go more downwind than she wanted, but helped her stay in control a little more, too. She worked on a more typical upwind stance and that helped. When the jellies go down we'll start her on the harness, as she's ready to move up a notch.
For me, the sailing was awesome... it was flatwater stuff, but I really enjoyed getting out. I haven't been able to windsurf much lately and I'll take anything I can get. I worked on better stance and keeping things quiet on the 7.8/Allstar combo. My jibes on that Allstar have just jumped into a whole new level the last three times out on it. I'm really enjoying that board now. Alas, I find myself getting tired of just blasting back and forth and look forward to doing some offshore sailing in the Gulf soon.
On a final, weird note: I threwup while windsurfing! It was hot and I was dehydrated, I think (despite drinking everything in the cooler). I didn't feel it coming on... I was fine. Then, boom. Weird.
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