There's No Place Like Home

    Okay, so Maui is nice. I mean, warm tropical trade winds and sailing smaller gear than I ever sailed in my life. But "Victory at Sea" conditions with overhead swell and washing machine chop I can do without. Sure, sailing barefoot and without a wetsuit is comfy, warm clear blue water is great, but how 'bout them sea turtles that like to appear just where you want to land that jump you just inadvertently took off that piece of chop that happened to drop away to nothing when you weren't looking?
    And then there's Lake Isabella. Aaaahhh. Home sweet home. Drove up Sat morning, got there around 10am, shmoozed for awhile, rigged up a 5.7 and tore around, feeling so calm and comfortable, after all, no swell, no chop to speak of, and certainly no sea turtles. I noticed I was screaming along and was asking myself, am I overpowered or not? I swear, I couldn't tell, I was so damn comfortable after survival sailing in Maui for 2 weeks, but I noticed everyone else was on smaller gear than me, and I was having a very hard time turning into my jibes (yes, harder than usual, Spennie), so I rigged down to 5.0. Again, that feeling of calm, contentment, comfort, relaxation, tearing around, back and forth, making my jibes, now. I guess the 5.0 was the right call, until I saw some guys on 4.7's. Now that's ridiculous. I refuse to cave in to peer pressure, besides, I was passing everyone, what fun!!
    Sailed from noon till 5pm with a 1/2 hour break for lunch and another 1/2 hour break for a Red Bull and a snack. In Maui, I was lucky to stay on the water an hour.
    Don't get me wrong, I loved Maui, but truly, there's no place like home!

--Linda

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