Tuesday, September 11, 2007

August Trip Report: Sunday

I woke early and walked to Agua Java for my ceremonial caffeine dose. Matt, Karen, Chris, and Alex joined me a few ounces later. We only missed Jason, who slept through my phone calls. After leaving a message, we decided that we had a quorum. We walked to La Bahia for the traditional Sunday breakfast.

Chris and Alex started their drive to Austin immediately after eating. The rest of us planned to get some windsurfing in first. Meanwhile we needed to check out of the hotels and Jason needed to get some breakfast.

Matt, Karen, Jason, and I met at Worldwinds as planned. I rented a 6.4 meter sail and Jason rented a 6.0, both of us on the JP X-Cite Ride 145s. Matt and Karen rented JP 180s, the intermediate board. Karen took a refresher class.

The rest of us sailed, experimented, and practiced. The wind was around 18-21 MPH. A good compromise: less intimidating to the early intermediate sailor, but still allowing for planing excitement.

Jason and I both practiced more water starts. My success rate might have gone up slightly, but I still had many of the problems from Saturday. Despite this, I'm happy to know that I'm not far from ditching the uphaul. It will be a joy not to have to wrestle the sail anymore.

I planed a lot, getting more comfortable with the experience. The lighter conditions made it a little more difficult to get on plane, but with less chop it was easier to stay there. Overall, the experience was relaxing.

When I came in around 3:30 for a water break, Karen was just visible as a speck floating on her board. Don was concerned that she would keep drifting further away from shore if she didn't start sailing. Since his giant binoculars didn't reveal the problem, he decided to go check on her in person. Don prepared the huge Kona long board and attached a line to the rear foot straps for the possibility of towing.

As Don prepared his rescue mission, I watched someone sail up to Karen. Karen hoisted the sail up momentarily and they both sailed directly to shallow water down the beach. I was a bit disappointed to miss a "Baywatch" moment, but I suppose this was more dignified than a tow. I peeked through my camera at full zoom and saw that Matt had joined Karen. Both were performing a walking tack back to Worldwinds.

I grabbed two bottles of water and walked out to meet them. It turned out that Karen had a uncomfortably close encounter with a jellyfish. Ouch. Apparently she had felt nervous that she might meet another jelly and decided to float on the board for a while.

As Matt and I carried their boards in, Karen got a vinegar shower at Worldwinds. In addition to making half of a tasty salad dressing, vinegar apparently helps cure jellyfish stings. She smelled great.

As Matt and Karen packed, Jason returned to shore and called it a day. I carried my equipment in and spoke to Matt and Karen about food. We all decided to meet at Subway for dinner.

We compared notes over our tasty gourmet meal. I think we all agreed: another successful trip. After stuffing ourselves, Jason and I started the drive back to Austin. Matt and Karen planned to explore Corpus a bit before doing the same.

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