Bonaire, Windsurfed, SW, 13-18, 6.5/Carve122

Picture- Mike, from Framingham, racing against team Josh & Ben.

Last day; my back was pretty sore from all the windsurfing this week, so I took a few runs on a 6.5 and, when that wasn't big enough, I stopped. Josh was planing on an 8.0/ 133 liters but he couldn't quite get comfortable on a sail that big. Ben had a great time with a Starboard Start and a 2.1. He got his first light air jibes. He loved the stability of the board, and it turned well for him too. The 2 boards that he liked the best this vacation, the Start and the RRD Evolution 360, have center fins. Barbara was getting some good practice for non-planing jibes with a 5.5. In the afternoon Josh took an intro to scuba class. He was the only student and it turned out to be about 15 minutes of class time, no pool time, and a long reef dive in front of the hotel, 40 ft depth. He loved it. Barbara, Ben and I went to the National park but we got there a little after 3:00 and it closes at 2:45. I wish we had known. We still had fun driving around the north side of the island and looking at Indian inscriptions, small caves, lots of cactus and coral everywhere.

Travel Hell; Sunday 7/8, we got bumped from our first flight on American Eagle due to a, "weight restriction". I guess they had to bump somebody because they had too much weight on the plane, but if we were there earlier then it would have been somebody else. We checked in 1 hour before departure time, which is pretty late for an international flight. We ended up paying for tickets to Aruba on DAE, American Eagle gave us vouchers but we realized later that they are only good for a discount on future AA flights, essentially worthless to us. Then the flight that they promised would take us from Aruba to get home was overbooked. I think they had just made false promises to get us out of their hair. We ended up staying in San Juan at our expense. After 5 flights we got home Monday afternoon. It added close to $1000 to the cost of our vacation. Not fun.

Bottom Picture- High five for a successful tack, then fall.