Lots of wind for everyone!

Well what do you know, it does get windy here in Netherlands. :)

Wind readings of gusts getting to 35+ knots (that's more than 64 km/h) and never less than 20 knots (close to 37 km/h).

And me without a proper sail. My smallest sail is a freeride 5.4 m². It's good for 20 to 25 knots but not so good for anything above that. That didn't stop me. A bit more downhaul and outhaul and on with flying I go. I have a feeling that I was going above the 30 knots mark several times (got to get a water proof GPS to check this feelings).

What did stop me was that after two hours I crashed hard when gybing. Somehow my left thumb lost a not so small part of skin during the crash and the messy going around that happen just after. That did made me stop. Now it's healing time, which I can only hope to be fast.

Enough with the talk, it's photo time.

Fun morning. Now it's time to get back to work…

Some good wind this past two days…

Last Friday and Saturday were good days of windsurfing here in North Holland. Saturday I stayed and do some work but on Friday it was a really nice session.

The wind was coming from South-West, so going to Muiderberg would not be a very good idea. I end up going to Almere Centraal with my RRD FreeStyleWave 100 litres (2008 collection) (you can see some photos of it here and here and my good old Blade freeride 5.4m² sail.

As in Portugal so is the South Wind here in Netherlands. Inconstant, strong gusts and bringer of rain. Sometimes the wind would be at 12 knots and then a could would move in the sky and all of a sudden it would be blowing at 24 knots with gusts of 28 to 30 knots. I had quite a handful in those moments but also lots of fun.

Good to improve my gybes and tacks on (for me) a small board. And some jumping too. Nice! I mostly stayed at North shore of the Gooimeer but sometimes would travel more South and get close to the South shore (for relaxing the arms a bit nothing like a long stretch of just going forwards.

Then in the evening we had dinner in the club. A nice pizza with the sun shining on us, nice relaxed music playing and very nice company. Life has its very good days.

Netherlands is starting to grow on my heart…

Remember that on a previous post I asked where can one enjoy a warm Sunset in Europe? Well… one can in Netherlands. The weather here has been so warm as to make the summers in Aveiro feel cold in comparison. Temperature between 20°C and 25°C. The win has not come strong but still enough to enjoy some light air sessions.

With the wind blowing from North East the best place is my playground (Muiderberg, see the photos at albums [1] and [2]) but with the Sun shining in the sky and the pleasant temperatures more and more people have come to enjoy it the same place.

One "fellow" windsurfer uses a truly ancient board, a Fanatic Ultra Cat, I believe from the end of the 80's. His sails are also old. Yet, with this light wind, he goes faster than most. The photo bellow doesn't do him justice (it was 4 knots when I took it).

Now I even have company for my windsurf trip. And good companionship it is. My half orange decided to start the windsurf classes at the windsurf club Almere Centraal, a really nice club.

Although the classes are with big boards (those with more than 200 litres, a daggerboard,long and wide as a oil platform), that didn't stop her from enjoying our latest addition: a Fanatic Shark 135 litres with a 5m² rig. It's a board that it's big enough for her to move from beginner to intermediate and fun enough for me to play and light wind conditions.

I also had a good time. My "big" sails is being repaired (third panel ripped apart when I took it in a session something like a month ago) so I had only a 5m² or 5.4m². With the latter, with the wind blowing at around 14 knots and with some pumping, the board was planning. It's a really nice board but I'll save the introduction for a next post.

It should have been a lot better…

Back in Portugal after one very disappointing week at Moulay, Morocco. Disappointing for the lack of wind but also the FBC there is a bit less professional than what I expected (specially after the wonderful experience at FBC Lanzarote last year). From schedule conflicts on rented equipment, appalling bad setting of the rig, seizing of the rented equipment and sometimes just plain bad manners. When things could go wrong, they did. I might explain better in another post, although I don't really see any reason to dwell on it. Maybe I'm actually being unfair (though I can't figure how) but I really feel that I'll never again go to Moulay spot unless I have my own equipment or a rental in another place.

It's even more astonishing that things worked out so bad when my experience with everything related to Fanatic has been great: Club Mistral travel agency is wonderful and really very helpful (they managed to book a flight for me in 20 minutes, just in time for the check-in), the other Fanatic Board Centers that I know are really nice, friendly and very professional, the people I got to have contact with are just great. It has always been a pleasure to do business with all of them and I expect it will continue to be so, just not ever with Moulay as a destination.

All in all I am really happy to be back in Portugal enjoying an exceptional warm weather and spending time with my family and friends. Soon this week at Moulay will be nothing but a faded memory.

In the mean time I'll try and get to go on another Windsurf Clinic.

Sometimes it just happens…

After a long wait the wind did come today. The forecast of 14 to 18 knots for the afternoon lead me to believe some fun was about to be unleashed. Well the forecast were wrong. After 16:00 the wind picked up and it got to 22 knots with gust pushing for 25.

Now I went to my playground to measure the wind speed at around 15:30 and at that time it was well within the forecast values (15 knots, gusts reaching 17 knots). I then went home to get my gear and, stupid me, I took only my 6.9m² sail with me. That proved to be a big mistake…

A 6.9m² sail is perfect for light winds (like the ones I measured before getting my gear) but for 22 knots I should use a 5.0m² sail. So I had a bit more sail than what I should…

I'm not a very week guy and I'm also a bit on the heavy side and with some struggle I managed to keep on sailing but, even if I was actually enjoying myself, the sail wasn't having any fun at all and eventually the third panel didn't resist one of the gusts and broke apart. It's actually looks like it exploded and some of the material is gone.

So, in resume, I had lots of fun but am now looking for either a new or second hand sail. Or a way to repair that old sail. Time to hit the local market.

More wind

Oh it's another great day to be in the water (apart from freezing finger tips).

From 13:00 until 16:00 it was really good, constant wind from North. Later it started to sometimes falter and then it just dropped to 14 knots or so. The water temperature was at around 8°C as was the air. So… slightly on the cold side.

This time I took a 5.6m² sail and everything was so much easier. It's also because I was not so thirsty for action. Thursday session had cured my aching for sailing, with sore muscles and overall tiredness. Today session was a lot more relaxed. As if now I could actually take the time to appreciate the feeling of the board, the sound of the wind on the sail, the pressure in the harness lines. Even so my favourite action when getting home after a windsurf session: shower, eat and sleep.

If on Thursday I though there were lots of sailors, today it was a crowd, with some 30 kiters and another equal number of sailors. Way kool to see so many people enjoying the wind.

I'm a happy camper. Lets see if tomorrow I get to sail with some people with which I already sailed before (check it here and here).

100th post = first 2012 windsurf session

Hundredth post and what a good post subject it is: my first windsurf session this year. And what a session!

Yesterday, as the wind finally decided that Netherlands also needs to be aired, I went to my playground to acertain the conditions. I wasn't expecting much. The wind forecast was not bad (16 knots, gusts of 20) so I decided to take only my 6.9m² sail (that was a mistake, as you'll understand in a moment).

At noon the wind was coming from North-West, at 15 knots and the big sail gave the enough lift for me to be planning most of the time. At around 14:30 the wind started to change direction more to North and to get stronger, getting closet to a constant 20 knots with gusts of 22/23 knots. That for a 6.9m² sail is really heavy stuff and I was feeling way over-powered.

Since I didn't sail since last year (on the same spot actually) I am terrible unused to the effort required to windsurf. Every move was done a bit harder, spending more energy, requiring more from muscles that are not used to the effort. Specially in the beginning of the session when tiredness had not settled in yet. In the end of the day I felt like I had caught a bad case of flue - all my muscles hurt - but I would not have it any other way.

I didn't take many photos (too busy for that) so I can't show you how great Muiderberg looked. Even if it was a cloudy day it was filled with colour. The colour of some fourteen windsurfers and around eight kitesurfers.

This are just some photos I took before getting in the water. I was one of the first ones to arrive there (yes, that's thirst for action) but already some other guys were getting ready to go in.

Wonderful day.

Today the wind seams to have taken leave… let's hope tomorrow it comes back for more fun.

Update on coverage

Just a update on what area has been covered by my bicycle wheels

According to my records it's has come to a total of 366 km and I have every intention of keep adding to that number.

Today it's going to be something a bit less intensive than yesterday.

Marken peninsula

Yesterday I took the longest bicycle ride I ever took here in Netherlands, taking me to a beautiful and very picturesque Marken. I didn't see any girl dress in their traditional costumes but I did get to see the lighthouse and a small beach close to it.

Here are the stats for the ride:

distance

62.33 km

time

2:50

average speed

21.91 km/h

max speed

43.20 km/h

Not so bad for an fat old cat. Although I do admit that after the 50^th km it was becoming a bit too uncomfortable. Still it was worth it. Both for the exercise as well as for the sights. The attentive reader will also notice that I broke my maximum speed record too. The north wind, blowing at what I guess were no more than 8 knots (±15 km/h), helped with that when heading south.

On the way to Marken and when coming back I saw this poor adventure fellow. His adventure was to ride the car almost to the Kinselmeer and get stuck in the soft mud. I wonder how long he had to wait there to get the car out, and how lucky he is that there are no tides in this inner seas.

Twenty six of March was also a very nice day due to some phone calls I received… Might be that the wind will change direction and the skipper will have to steer the boat in other direction.

'cycle coverage

For IT R&D the "coverage" is one of those super abused metrics on software code quality. I decided to just show a coverage of my latest bicycle trips. No asserts. Not even unit tests at all.

…and now it's time to get back on the saddle and expand the coverage. Be back in about two hours.

6 knots. damn…

Another bicycle ride, this time with the wife for company. So a more relaxed pace, more sight seeing and taking advantage of the nice places where to stop. Trip stats:

distance

32.25 km

time

2:00

average speed

16.12

max speed

27.90

I think my better half is now regretting a big part of those 32 km but I think the important this is that she did it.

In the photos you can see a nice terrace and a nice place, both in Abcoude a really nice place.

After the bicycle ride we went to Muiderberg (my playground) to check the wind already knowing that it would be hardly more than 10 knots. When we got there it was even worse than that. A constant breeze of 6 knots blowing form the North. Not enough for making me go into the cold water (now at 7°C) but enough to steel the heat from your skin quite fast. Even if it's sunny the air temperature is still not warm but a mere 10 °C.

The guy you see in the photo above was obviously desperate to get in the water. Is trick was to walk on the shore, along the yellow grass in the photo, gaining some up wind space and then slowly make his way downwind to the shore. My guess is that it actually worked because the water is so shallow there that the board was dragging on the bottom sand.

Breaking records

While waiting for wind I'm getting better at riding bicycle… or at least in riding faster and for longer. Here are the stats for today ride:

distance

43.73 km

time

1:56

average speed

22.59 km/h

max speed

41.40 km/h

So I broke two personal records today: maximum speed (yeah) and distance.

Being new to the place I can enjoy the rides for both the exercise as for the sense of discovery. There is always something new: a new village, a new terrace, a different house and now, with spring, lots of new born lambs, calfs and cabritos (yes, that's a English word. You can use "kid" instead if you prefer).

I know I should take more photos of all this things I see while riding. At least to try to keep a memory of that feeling of discovery. But… I'm lazy. It's a pain to stop, take the phone out of the pocket, turn it on, load the camera application, point the photo, shoot, block the phone, put it back into the pocket and start riding again. Too much trouble. We need a visual cortex to SD card interface.

How to keep track of exercise stats?

Today I went for a bicycle ride. It's actually a usual thing now that the Sun is shinning in North Holland. Beautiful Sun makes this land bright and warm.

Here are the stats for today exercise:

distance

39.35 km

time

1:47

average speed

21.97 km/h

max speed

35.10 km/h

I record this using my faithful android phone (with cyanogenmod) using My Tracks application. It works great, doesn't drain the battery even when using the GPS and 3G. It also provides some nice export functionality - to KML files, to a spreadsheet in google docs or to a map in google maps. All in all a very polished application and, until now at least, reliable and easy to use.

What a good day!

What a great day here at north Holland. The Sun shines in a cloud free sky and temperature raised to a very comfortable 13°C. Enough to go cycling with shorts and a sweater. Which brought to my attention how pale my legs are. I need to get some serious stay in the sun soon or else I'll become a ghost...

It feels sweeeeet! (you have to picture in your mind Jeremy Clarkson saying sweet) Maybe spring is coming for real. There is even forecast for some wind during the Weekend. Oh yeah!

In every terrace there are people staying and enjoying the sun shine.
Now if only the wind would also show up...

So some stats on my cycling of today:

distance

22.14 km

time

57.15

average speed

23.21 km/h

max speed

31.50 km/h

Not very bad but I need to improve my stamina so that I'll be ready for the wave windsurf camp in Moulay.

Well, latter I'll go for a swim, so eventually my body will react and get used to exercise again. I hope…

Carpathian mountains (2nd part)

Being in the mountains in winter I couldn't wait until I got to a ski track and went snowboarding. In Romania it's specially easy and cheap to rent equipment (one day rent for less than 10 euros), the tracks are well maintained, the scenery is great and if you're lucky you get fresh snow and sunny days. I was. I had both sun and snow fall during the day.

View Larger Map

If you use googleearth to have a look at the city of Predeal (Braşov) you'll see that South East of the city there ski resort with both black and red tracks as well as space for the beginners to play and learn. As the surface satellite images are from 2012 you will see the city covered in snow. It only gets better by being there.

Being close to the center of the city means that accessing the resort is easy and getting something to eat or drink is also just a question of deciding to take a break.

All things considered I think it's quite a good value for money to go to this Carpathian mountains if you want to enjoy winter sports. I have been to resorts in the Alps and considering the prices and the what you get this is really a good deal for those that have a restrictive budget.

A bit of exercise

Weather forecast in Netherlands are a funny thing. Mostly in can be resumed to "probability of rain" or "showers" and usually are almost right. But not quite. The weather changes with a amazing speed and any forecast further than two hours are just wild guesses. This is important if you like outdoors activities (such as running, sailing, etc) as having a couple of hours without rain can make a huge difference in the way you feel your day.

Today was a perfect example of this sudden weather changes. From a hail to clear skies, from windy to calm. Only the temperature is usually very constant (today varying from 4°C to 6°C).

Taking advantage of the clouds giving us a break is a must (if you can, that is) and so when at 4 PM the sky became blue and quickly changed into running cloths, put my trainers and went for a run. It's so nice to run here. There are always new things for me to see, animals to watch and a feeling of never being at danger of being run over by a car.

So a 9.4 Km run in on hour and a half. Not bad for someone out of shape and a bit overweight as I am.

Tomorrow in the afternoon it's going to be not that bad for a small windsurfing session. I wonder if I'll have the guts to get into the water - it's still a bit cold and I didn't get new and warmer boots.

Still it has been a long time since I windsurf and there's a voice inside calling for it... Maybe I'll suffer my feet to freeze but still enjoy a bit of wind. I'll let you know how this conundrum (yeah, fancy word) resolved it self.