Ducking good time

Duck gybes eh... Its been an epic battle but in the end the powers of good have won out.

Five bloody sessions of frustration in getting that elusive first ever duck gybe happening and POW! A howling session on a 4.1 at Ricketts Point (a.k.a Rocketts) and some smooth water inside the reef. Sheet in hard (check), foot out of rear footstrap (check), kness well bent - curtsey not bow (check), levering up the front footstrap/weight forward (check), front hand near boom, (check), bear off; just a little... (check), back hand as faaaar back as it will go (check), release front hand (a big check as sail perfectly dropped to about 40deg off the nose), pull sail overhead with left hand (check), grab boom on the other side with right hand (CHECK - and ohmigod its "floating" as they said it would when you do it right... come on, come on... we can DO this...), flick sail back (CHECKKKKK!!!), grab boom in sailing position (CHECKKARGHHH!!!), switch feet and GO....

Cripes, we would've planed out of the thing too if we werent screaming like a blue arsed banshee!! Still, a brief drop off the plane and we were off again.

It smells like..... victory.

That said, the day (Feb 7) was an awesome one for a sail on the Bay. Lotsa wind (~30knots) and waves to wet yourself over. Some big jumps (including an almost involuntary backloop which ended in a back-whacker from 4+ metres up) and grins alround.

Duck gybes eh.. been there, done that, got the ding on my board to prove it.