Septembers in the Chesapeake Bay are supposed to great sailing weather: typically fresh breezes with water still warm from the summer. Today fall was nowhere to be found and I had summer conditions. The temperature was close to 90 and the water was still in the upper seventies. The breeze as I was rigging up was around 10 knots so it looked like it was going to be a nice easy morning sail. By the time I had the rig on and the foils in I had worked up quite a sweat, so I decided to go without the skiff suit. I did wear the booties (to keep from getting cut up on the bottom as I waded out) and the Zhik titanium top. Things went well - as I got out to chest deep water, I righted the boat and climbed in, bore off, and within just a few tens of yards the boat was lifting. A couple of nice reaches across Willoughby and I was ready to start practicing the jibes again, hoping maybe today I'd be able to pull off a smooth foilborne jibe.
It wasn't to be. The breeze just wasn't enough to keep up on the foils at the deep angles. So a couple of crashes, and I realized why I need to wear the skiff suit: a little cheese slicer action on the thigh that would have been nothing with the suit on turned into a nice cut. Not the best of things to have happen since I'm on a Coumadin anti-coagulation therapy. Still, a couple of hours on the water has to help.
Tears? Not in the sense of boo-hoo tears, but in the sense that the rip in the top batten pocket is getting larger.
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