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Kitesurfing, Windsurfing and Sailing: Trip Report - December 2009
Bonaire Talk: Kitesurfing, Windsurfing and Sailing: Archives: Archive 2010: Trip Report - December 2009
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trevor Hibdige, Lac Bay Villa (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #170) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 7:47 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

We thought you might like a blow-by-blow report of our recent trip to get some idea of how much fun it can be !!!

Carole's Bit
Bonaire Trip Report – 12th to 30th December 2009

Some of the best windsurfing yet – looking back on my diary the description “Awesome” seems to occur quite frequently....
Day 1: We arrived some time after 4am on 12th December, and I was surprised at how cool it felt when we exited the plane. It felt great to be back and I set about unpacking the suitcases whilst the boys sorted the windsurfing kit. After breakfast and collecting the Hilux we were able to head for the beach and get rigging. Wow, what a first session: I was overpowered on the 4.4m, Trevor and Sam used the 4.7m, Nic his new custom 4.4m - what a blast. In the afternoon I got to use the 4.7m (the Naish is so much nicer than the Arrows) and Trevor the 5.3m. Excellent windsurfing, well powered with stable wind.
Day 2: The wind was still blowing around 20-22 knots, so I was well powered on the 4.4m again, Trevor the 5.3m, Sam the 4.7m and Nic the 4.4m. In the afternoon I swopped to the 4.7m, but got blown away !!
Day 3: 5.8m in the morning and a beautiful evening sail on the 6m.
Day 4: Managed an hour of blasting on the 6m, but the wind then dropped.
Day 5: swam at the pier, but noticed the wind had come up so rushed to pick up the 7m and sailed for an hour.
Day 6: 6m plus the 86 Isonic – awesome 2 hours, short break and then took out the 5.7m – heavenly. Home to rest, returned late afternoon and took out the 6m for a fabulous evening sail.
Day 7: 6m in the morning and afternoon for some excellent blasting.
Day 8: 6.5m both morning and afternoon – awesome.
Day 9: Awesome sailing on the 5.7m.
Day 10: Overpowered on the 5.7m, so changed to the 4.7m which was perfect, quite choppy, but I still had a good blast. Used the 4.7m again in the afternoon, Trevor managed 51.3 km/hr !!
Day 11: Took the 4.7m with the 76 litre Isonic – really awesome. Nicely powered, controlled and pulled off some good jibes. In the afternoon I changed up to the 5.7m with the 86 Isonic – fun blasting and went across to the Mangroves for a few runs – pulled off most of my jibes.
Day 12: no wind, so took the opportunity to read and relax.
Day 13: Christmas Day – no wind. I tried the 7m, but there just wasn’t enough.
Day 14: Swam in the morning and managed to get planning on the 7m late afternoon.
Day 15: 6m plus the 76 Isonic - excellent windsurfing.
Day 16: 6.5m plus the 76 litre Isonic – great, well powered.
Day 17: 6m plus the 86 Isonic – one good hour of blasting, but thereafter the wind was very up and down.
Day 18: Another awesome day: 6m plus the 76 lsonic and later the 5.7m. A great sail to end the holiday.

The house looked fantastic, Frank of BSC had just finished painting the exterior, including the woodwork and what a fine job he has done. We decided to change the colour of the wall posts to “vanilla”, which I think works well. Next time we might even consider changing the orange for something else .......
Internally we had all the ceilings and woodwork scrubbed, and it looks wonderful. We’ve also had new ceiling fans installed upstairs and in two of the bedrooms, and we’ve also replaced the bed linen.
Looking forward to the summer ..........

Trevor’s Bit
Day 1. Dawn Patrol.
As is common for us on the Amsterdam – Bonaire route, the flight to take is the overnight one. This ensures that some sleep is had (the day flight keeps us too excited to sleep) and you arrive 4:00am and then have a few hours to get the kit sorted before hitting the beach.

Again we took a couple of sails and booms and masts but nothing major in terms of kit. Window blinds – yes. Blackout screens for the Velux windows – yes. Stuff for the house – yes. But not too much windsurfing kit. Our store is getting pretty good out there !

Sails
7.0 Naish Redline / 100% carbon mast / Neil Pryde X9 carbon boom [GRIN]
6.5 Naish Redline / 80% carbon mast / Rushwinds carbon boom
6.0 Naish Redline / 80% carbon mast / Aeron(Tushingham) carbon boom
5.8 Naish Mana / 80% carbon mast / Arrows alu boom
5.7 Naish Force / 75% carbon mast / Chinook alu boom
5.3 Naish Nalu / 75% carbon mast / (need to get a spare boom !)
4.7 Naish Session / 75 carbon mast / Naish alu boom
4.4 Gaastra Echo LE Custom (ex Tonky) / 100% carbon skinny / MK carbon boom

Plus a few others not used much but there “just in case” and “because”…..

It does look a bit like a Naish test centre !!!

Boards
What do we sail ? Check out the list…….

Starboard iSonic 96 (2008)
Starboard iSonic 86 (2008)
Starboard iSonic 76 (2008)
Starboard Flare 88 (2008)
(ear to ear grin)
HiFly Move 95 (2006)
F2 Chilli 99 (2007)
Lightwaves Custom Slalom 138 (1990) – DIED THIS TRIP – see more later
Mistral SLE 78 (1999)

(a Starboard Test Centre ???)

So down to the sailing
It was windy when we hit the beach at 09:00. I rigged up for Carole (4.4) and Sam (4.7) – Nic put up his 4.4 Echo LE and they all went sailing while I started on the 5.3 and watched everyone getting slammed by the 20+++ kts winds and the chop. Sam came back in after an hour and gave me the 4.7 and I had a blast. Me on a 4.7 means it MUST have been windy !!!

After lunch it stabilised a bit and I held on to the 5.3 and went hunting i.e. looking for anything to overtake hehehe

Day 2
Trashed the Lightwave with the 5.3 and a humungous jump which I landed sideways at speed and ripped the tail off. RIP Lightwaves………

Day 3 +++
Apart from a couple of days watching Carole and Sam and Nic cruise on my bigger kit I sailed hard. Hard = 50 km/hr +. We started an “Over 50” Club. 50 km/hr that is and not YEARS !!! Though I qualify for both. Sam joined it in the first week and although Carole cleared 50+ last Christmas (53.45 km/hr) she did not have the GPS on her when hitting her top speeds. We only have (had) two GPS and one of those got full of water and had to be left at home after week two….

Favourite Memories
Christmas Day on the beach (not enough wind for me but Hey, I can watch for hours; still; after 31 years of windsurfing !

Being absolutely maxed out on my 7.0 when Carole took the 5.7 and was fully powered. I was so pumped up but in control…………

Being absolutely maxed out on my 6.5 when everyone else was on 5.3 or smaller :-)

Hitting the water on a 4.7 and being nicely powered (4.7 in Bonaire = 4.2 in Europe and for me to go out on a 4.2 here means it is serious)

Trashing my favourite board ever ever ever. The Lightwaves was special.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roy is back..at last PBD has subsided!! (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3167) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 1:31 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW Awesome windsurfing trip report Trevor & Carole , now I have to get fit to try and get near that level for my next trip in 2012.

Any Pics?? I'll have to look at my captures from the WebCams to see if I've caught you at all @!@

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trevor Hibdige, Lac Bay Villa (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #171) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 4:22 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Test

test

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trevor Hibdige, Lac Bay Villa (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #172) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 4:27 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks for the encouragement. Here are some pics...

test
test
test
test
test
test

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trevor Hibdige, Lac Bay Villa (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #173) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 4:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

If you fancy helping a test, I have built a photo-book (the first of many) on our website at

http://www.lacbayvilla.com/photo_books/index.html

Have a click and play and let me know if it works...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Trevor Hibdige, Lac Bay Villa (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #174) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 4:50 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

(the full screen images take ages (apologies - they are very very high resolution)

Trevor

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roy is back..at last PBD has subsided!! (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3171) on Friday, January 15, 2010 - 5:08 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I had to download the latest Adobe flash player, and once I'd rebooted it worked great.

Absolutely excellent Bonaire wildlife pictures :-)

Thank you Carole :-)

 


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