Very pretty, but very flat. Often during the summer there will be big swells crashing against the sea wall in front of my house. So far, there has been very little tropical storm activity south of us to generate the waves. It is still early, though, as the hurricane season tends to be busier in September and October.
The Grey Dawn is back in the water. I owned this boat for a dozen years. The new owner, Maria, had it out of the water and just put it back in about a month ago. It is nice to see it ready to cruise.
Saturday I'll be back in Cape Cod to spend a month. Should be able to kite at least half the days that I'll be there. It will be a nice change anyway, even if the weather doesn't cooperate.
I have a cottage in East Dennis, Massachusetts so it seemed like a logical choice to go there.
We only have a couple more days left and didn't have any wind today. Tomorrows prediction looks good, 12 to 18 knots. The launch site is a bit limited right now and we have to park about half a mile away due to some rare birds, piping plovers, nesting in the area.
Monday we had enough wind out of the South for a few of us to get out on the water over at Pilar Condominiums. Then on Wednesday the wind switched to the northwest and we had a great day out at the kite shack. Jorge, Ken, Chip and Jeff all had great sessions, except that Jeff had to be carried of the beach after crashing while attempting an overpowered kite loop. OOps. The forecast calls for a few more days, off and on, of northwest wind so we are all looking forward to getting in some rare summertime kiting.
Chuburná, Yucatan
The town of Progreso is a mix of fishing port, industrial port, and tourist destination with a population of about 45,000. The people are friendly and there is no area where you don't feel safe to walk any time day or night. There are more schools than bars and more recreation fields and playgrounds than I have seen in all of Sonora. I saw activities going on for kids every evening, especially in the central park, or zócalo.
The local band of kiters were the best I've ever met. Most were university students in Merida and could only get to the beach a couple of times a week. They weren't shy about trying out new moves as some had the hope of getting a sponsorship from a kite company. They were also the friendliest and most helpful group I've ever met. They truly treated me as a brother. I hope some of them can make it to San Carlos sometime; I have a spare bedroom for any of them to use.
Sunday was a little bit better, but not much. To kill time while waiting for wind we tried getting pulled with a tow rope behind a Quad runner. It worked well but there were too many people on the beach and we couldn't do very long runs. Finally the wind did pick up. Enough that a couple of beginners, Christian and Tommi, were able to get a feel for flying the kites and body dragging. I had fun on the 19.5 Contra, but there wasn't much wind.
I mentioned above that I made myself a new board. Well, here is a picture of it.
I made it out of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. It is 152 x 46, almost no rocker (less than half inch) and no fins. It has two thin coats of epoxy to seal it.
Worked well in its first time out, but it is heavy. I expect to give it a lot of use this summer as we mostly have light winds from now until October.
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First, I clean the kite and tape the kite back together. I used blue painters' tape because it is made to strip off cleanly without leaving any glue residue.
I tape it such that the two sides of the tear are butted up against each other tightly but without any overlap. Then I put a thin layer of Seam Grip on the other side. I let it dry a few hours and put on another layer. I then let it dry overnight or at least 12 hours before pulling the tape off. They make an accelerator that can be added to the glue that speeds up the drying time to two hours but I haven't seen it in the stores. I suppose you could order it from somewhere.
After pulling the tape off, I apply two coats of glue to the other side.
Carlos was the last man on the water yesterday. It was a good powered up day and I was out getting used to a new kite - a North 2007 Rhino 7M. Nice kite but the lines didn't come adjusted correctly so it took a while to get it to fly right. We have had five days of north westerly wind, although it was light a couple of days. Forecast doesn't look good the rest of the week.
When the wind blew from the north, an area known as the flats, on the bay side was good with fairly flat water and good launching area.
The gulf side was also an option but we didn't take advantage of it until the last day had had good waves but wind was a little light.
We all had a great time working on new moves and enjoying the different areas. Here is Jean-Francois getting ready to hit the waves. Below are a few more action shots.
