Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 3, 2008

Lars Peterson joined me on the Sea Martin today. Lars used to sail 470s in Denmark and knows his way around dinghies.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring the GPS unit along and don’t have a record of the route. The light rain and 6-8m/s offshore winds were perfect for Lars’ first Zushi sailing experience. We headed towards Nejima and had just gone through the channel when it occurred to me that the boat was unusually sluggish: 10 seconds later I realized I hadn’t inserted the drain plug back at the club (first time in 3 years)! After rounding Nejima and two tacks later we hit Hayama beach with the stern submerged – not sure how much longer we’d have stayed afloat but we made it. It took about 20 mins to empty the hull and Lars found a piece of Styrofoam to insert into the drain hole. We hit the water intending to beat a retreat home only to capsize a hundred meters offshore. The temporary fix worked and the wind picked up providing us with plenty of action on the way back to Zushi.

Given that its Golden Week here I had expected more boats to be out but the rain must have put people off - don't really know why as conditions were really great.

After a lunch on the Marinebox balcony we headed back out for another 50 min or so in the 8m/s winds.

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