On The Third Day...

Tues 8 Jan

And on the third day... we sailed through the reef.

After a week at Cabarete last year when the wave conditions were always too severe for us to sail through the gap in the reef, and another weekend of similar conditions this year, I was beginning to doubt that I would be trapped forever inside the line of breaking waves from point to point that confined us to the relatively small bay of Cabarete.

But no. On Tuesday the ocean swell had moderated and we were able to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean for a long day of practice in relatively light winds. Rulo had us doing rabbit starts time after time to work on light air upwind technique and speed, and then good old "tacking on a whistle". After we had sailed about half way to Bermuda we then did a whole series of downwind drills.

As on Sunday, Rulo was excellent both on the water and in the debrief in pointing out how to improve our technique, well my technique. Some of the other sailors were seriously faster than me in these conditions.

Rulo gave us longer on the water than usual, to make up for yesterday I assume. No complaints from this sailor. I came here to sail.

The walk back to the hotel seemed shorter than yesterday. The shower was more refreshing. And Ron... Ron worked his magic again. I love Cabarete.

Da doo ron ron.

Learnings

Upwind in light air

1. Lock body into boat better.
2. Sail with shoulders outside of butt.
3. Lock tiller on leg.
4. Steer with movements of the back, not the tiller.
5. Have a slight heel in waves, flatten between waves.
6. In waves just take out the slack in the vang.

Roll tacks

1. Sheet in before the tack

Roll gybes

1. Move towards center line before the gybe.
2. Over trim before the gybe.
3. Wait for sail to fill before flattening after the gybe.