Monday, February 17, 2003
The day started with a bunch of computer play, and then some continental
breakfast at the hotel balcony. The wind was already making an early
presence, at 9:00 AM, stroking the palm leaves back and forth, foretelling of
the days wind strength. Clear skies, and plenty of sun to go around! Toasty
78 deg already! Looks good for today!
After the email and photo downloads, I finally got myself slathered with
sunscreen, and headed out. Talked to Rita, the owner, and she said I could
move to the bigger room today, rather than wait ?till Connie arrives, as the
place is ? empty! What a score! Double for the price of a single! I decided
to make the move after the day of surfing, and headed to the beach.
Met with Tom and Kathy of the Vela center, and said our hello-how-are-
ya?s, and chatted about the wind, waves, computers, and general stuff, great
to see ?em again! As we were talking, the bigger 5.4?s and 5.7?s were coming
in, getting spanked, and looking for something smaller, in the 4.5-5.0 range.
The wind was up! Time to get some frequent-flyer miles!
I selected what I thought would be the fastest stick; the JP 261, 89lt
board. (Ok, I took Wicho?s advice, and went smaller than I would normally!)
This was matched with a 5.0 Neil Pryde sail, and off to the water!
The wind was full on 5.0M for me, the smaller Vela employee, Simona was
on a 3.7, and the average sailor was about 4.2-4.7M. It was really filled in
for about an hour and a half, from 2:30 on, and I was the lucky sailor to be
blessed with such awesome conditions! The waves on the outside were jacking
up into the 4-6 ft range, in nice jumpable 3 sets. The one?s where the first
is the largest, and the following two are smooth landing zones. I can?t count
how many times I swept up ramp after ramp, jacking over the second two, and
sliding the tail of my board, right down the back of the last wave in the
set!! What a total BLAST!! The starboard rides were punctuated with wave-
ride upon wave-ride, down the smooth wave fronts, carving in and out of my own
personal unending expanse of bump and jump terrain!
I wore the GPS today, and the stats showed the average jump in the 6-14
ft range, and one or two 20+ ft!! The airtime was completely fabuloso!! The
big ones, I must have gone downwind thru the air 30-50 ft, torquing on the
sail to extend the airtime! The landings were so smooth off the backs of the
waves! Only had a couple non-planing landings, and one rather high altitude
board slap. No damage to equipment or sailor though. The max speed was only
28.8 MPH in the bumpy conditions, but sailed/jumped ?till my arms were toast,
and swung it back into the beach. What a great day of full on white knuckle
sailing!! Best so far!
I tried to get out and take a couple photos, but I stayed out surfing too
long, and missed the locals showing off. Got a couple shots though, (see
below). Next time I?ll get Alexi to show off for some action shots, he is
always ready to loop over your head!
Ambled back to my room, and got ready for supper at Gaby?s bar and
restaurant. The BBQ was as good as ever, and so was Gaby. We talked for
awhile, and then I sat down for my Nachos, and ? chicken, barbequed to
perfection! After stuffing myself, I finally made the stroll back to my room,
under clear skies, and a full moon. The wind was strong all thru the meal and
the way home, bodes well for tomorrow again!
I plan to simply post the daily writeup and any photos or video on the
web page, so not to force feed your mailboxes. I?ll try to get it up and
running from here, should be doable. The Phone modem works reasonably well
here in the room, and when I upload the files using File Transfer Protocol, I
even get 30-44Kbps from time to time! So in the near future, you will get a
very brief update, with a link to the full daily report on the web.
Time to get some sleep, gonna play computers with Tom tomorrow AM, so
I?ll write again Tuesday. Hasta Luego!
Pics!!!!
Simona from Vela: http://www.downhaul.com/users/timewalks ... 2_17_b.jpg
Some of the boards available at the Vela Center:
http://www.downhaul.com/users/timewalks ... 2_17_c.jpg
A shot of the new cabanas to the west of Vela:
http://www.downhaul.com/users/timewalks ... 2_17_d.jpg
And the first video I have ever uploaded, someone blowing a jybe:
http://www.downhaul.com/users/timewalks ... _17_va.avi
Enjoy!
Tim surf report Walker
Tim Walker reports from Margarita
Moderator: MK
