Hard Work June 17th 2010

I wanted to visit the IFCA Slalom Grand Prix by water, so I set out at Paal 9 for the journey upwind. The wind was north/northeast. The IFCA Grand Prix is held at Paal 17, so the maths should say: 8 kilometers upwind. But Texel being Texel, Paal 9 is actually not Paal 9 but Paal 8, so it's 9 kilometers. And the current was head on. I made my upwind legs fairly a long way into the open sea, so for safety I had put on my lifevest and took a flare, some rope and a drink with me (and told the guys at Paal 9 to start the SAR if I did'nt get back by 18.00 hours). I was on my 2009 Falcon 140 with MFC RC 48 cm and choose to rig relatively small with Blade 7,5. It was great sailing that far on the open sea with a good steady breeze of 20-23 knots, blue skies and sunshine. Much to my surprise I was caught on camera coming ashore at Paal 17. You can see it was hard work. Once landed on the beach, I caught up with some competitors, made some smalltalk, drank their water and then raced downwind back to Paal 9. That went a lot quicker.....Tomorrow I'm going to the Kiss Sonic Boom concert in Gelredome and hope to be back on Texel early Saturday to hit the water again.