Monday March 28

Ahhh!  Another sleepy rise to the day! Nice stress free ambience of the terrace overlooking the garden view. Some early morning hammock rides to breeze by a couple hours of the morning. Played with the techno-stuff for a bit, and made for breakfast.

Eggs again today on the buffet menu! Love that stuff! I even managed some fresh off the pan! What timing! Gotta love the girls on the staff here! So nice to see their smiling faces, and speak some Spanish each day. They all are so nice to put up with my fumbling Spanish, and help me converse at least a little!

Monday, after Santa Semana it is like a sudden ghost town! The streets are again empty, and nary a car to be seen driving, during the entire walk down to the beach! Once to the beach, it was so amazing to see only a handful of people, scattered here and there, with yards of sand in between! The beach has officially returned to the ‘normal’ windsurf scene! Always nice to have the whole beach to ourselves again!

The wind was a-blowing right away as I got there about 11am and folks were already on the 5’s and going down is size every hour or so! I saw the opportunity to snap some bits into memory, and suited up to get some photo action of my fellow sailors. I just have a blast sharing this sport thru the lens, and had a fun 45 mins to fill the camera memory completely full. Some 367 pics to go through later! See them here!

Now it was really honkin! My time of the day! I planned to do a 91 lt and a 5.0M, but saw that was a bit too much, and as luck would have it, my fellow wind dummy, Mark, was coming in to trade down the 4.7m for a 4.2m! When the same size/skill level sailor is coming in to make that change, a 5.0 would be foolish!

I talked him into a trade, and scarfed up his 4.7, and snapped it to my board. With the boom height and harness lines optimized by Mark, the rig was absolutely a perfect fit! What a great ride! No adjustments needed, and I was off for a session of dolphin imitation off the waves! Ride, turn, jump! Wait for it… Plane for a bit, see the chop, be the chop, JUMP the CHOP! AIIIIIRRRR!!! Plane into the landing.. Repeat! What a fun afternoon of full on jump and jibes! I was having a blast, and ripped it up for a good couple hours!

I was starting to get sore and tired, when the wind seemed to be feeling the same, and I had to work to go upwind. I had enough, and headed for the beach. What a great afternoon of sailing! So fully content! Lovin it!

The content sailors settled in on the beach, and watched the evening show of the local sailors and kiters, showing off for all on the beach! Plenty of great moves, and they go great with a cold beer! We mingled about with the surf crowd at the beach bar, and made plans for Gabby’s and some BBQ tonight!

We had a group of eight, and sat down for some fun chat over a couple plates of the ‘Super Mega Nachos’ from the kitchen of Miguel! Great food there, and always a good time! We all loved our meal, and ate to the full mark! Just love the BBQ there! Best in town!

After a great meal, I had to visit with Miguel and another El Yaque condo owner, Tim, over the Clam Sandwich surfboards he had for sale! Some good prices and a great selection of three different shapes! I almost talked myself into buying one! I pried myself away, and made for the bar for some pool.

Some great socialization with fellow visitors and locals! I even got too busy to play any pool! Great night out, and I had a blast again! Another fine finish to the day! Let’s do it again tomorrow!