Green Island, QLD, AU Enjoyed a loverly day with my mate Ed and Billy The Kid.  A rough trip over and a solid 25knots saw us on the rivet - I rigged 6m Gator and run Atomiq 120 litres with 41cm Slalom - Made my sacrifice to the GI Gods - the Ghost of sailors past by Smashing my fin on the coral - fortunately my mate Ed, can fix the crack and get me going again - Ed Wheatley's Board Repairs is working on a pretty heavy nose injury sustained in one of those rib cracking catapults that I thought I had seen the last of.  Fortunately Ed works for fine Bourbon [which he is enjoying right now].  I have been invited to offer my boat as assistance for the Championships - a Great Adventure - and hopefully I can score a few choice bits of gear from the Top Guns.  Disappointed all around - had an epic three hour session yesterday on big gear at Port and a solid day the day before so my excuse is that I was a bit worn about.  Annoyed at the Gator's behaviour - I think I would like to move to a 6.3 metre cambered sail - the Gator slaved away at converting wind into motion - I think my 7.2 and 7.8 twin cam sails get up and boogy and are more efficient.  Really poor everything = but the real reason I love Green Island is that exhilirating drag strip - blasting along with the sand and coral beneath me - the stuff that windsurfing memories are made of.  Billy and Ed and I were pretty shagged out in between squalls - and decided to catch the 2:30 ferry home.  A rather mundane point was the first trial of my new gear transport device, a flatbed trailer with four wheels, two of which have a 360 degree range of motion.  The times in the past where I have skulldragged my gear with arms and back aching - now it is as easy as walking the dog - So much better.  Would love to get out to Port Douglas tomorrow as winds look awesome, but Jobs Must Be Done.  I hope you all get out there and amongst it.

4 categories

Green Island, QLD, AU ESE-SE winds to ~ 25 knots -mostly ~ 20 knots-chopped up reef flats ++

Disappointing Day -was hoping to Show Hardie GI at its best but we got cloud,rain,a lot of east in the wind & very choppy water ...

Got up Early to try the kestrel fins in the shallow water & again pleasantly surprised by the performance.

Used the Manta 98 RSR E 6 7m2 & the 22 kestrel initially(bigger than recommended) -on  the plus side it felt solid,had excellent upwind performance & was good across the wind .On the downside it kept letting go deep to the wind so couldnt complete any NM runs on it .

Switched to the tribal 31 SW as the tide came in /chop increased & immediately gained 1.5 knots in 2 sec speed -there was a noticeable decrease in fin drag using the tribal fin .

Sailed with Hardie,ED,Andrew & BiiyL-Still fun ...!!

Green Island, QLD, AU

Great day out with the lads - Ed, Andrew, Cam and Hardie. 20-25 knts - rough as guts, escpecially on the outer edges and the water slid off faster than I expected. Made one last run at around midday and felt the familiar Tick, tick, tick and decided to high tail it out. Gibes were non existant today, just couldnt get my balance. Great day out though. Thanks for making the effort lads.

Used 90 iSonic, 31 TWS, 6.5 T5

Green Island, QLD, AU..BILLY decided to organise a mid week GI session,so me and my wing man Andrew decided to take him up on his offer and go play with the fast kids..Walking down the GI jetty there was enough wind to blow a dog off its chain..Rigged burnt out 6.6m North rig with full crank down on trusty 97lt Isonic and 36cm fin..Did a quick tune up lap and hit the drag strip for happy hr..Dont get to sail in flat water very often and i kind of forget how much fun it is to have a blast' fully lit up' in next to know  chop...Had a couple of drags with Billy think he had the edge on me with his go fast fin..As soon as water started to drop i said good bye to drag strip,Had a quick pit stop and spent the rest of the session playing in the chop out the front..Had a total 'wipeout' trying to do a down winder in some angary chop..Was going to back off a bit but told myself to 'man up' and hang on to it..But it ended badly..What made it worse was Billy was watching and i know he was laughing..Was keen to do another 2hrs playing in the chop but ran out of water  and caught the 230 boat home ..Andrew didn't want to leave the drag strip and paid the price,trashed a good carbon fin...'you get that'......Yeah guess it was worth rigging up for..Cheers Ed..

Holloways Beach, QLD, AU Isonic 120 6.7 Aerotech, 43 alloy fin.

Gusty off and on conditions but good to get a sail after 3 weeks in Japan painting the in-laws old traditional hotel. They bought me GW 60 for my birthday. Todays results were from the Canmore. I'll  check the GW60 results later when I can work out how to use it.

Edit: I thought that bloody Canmore was ripping me off with an 11 knot alpha.  The GW60 gave me 17.26.