First Caribbean Surfing Session: Flying Fish and Turtles
Visiting a friend on St Maarten for a week, great opportunity to sail there.

Unfortunately, the rental on St Martin (French part of the island) only has about 15 boards and sails.
Larger than 6.0 was not available for rent at the moment, and wind seemed a bit little for 6.0. Still tried, with a somewhat larger board to get planing more easily.

Ezzy Cheetah 6.0 on Fanatic Blast 130 with Fins 46cm
The Blast 130 normally comes with a 42cm fin, and the 6.0 is on the small side for the 130. I was a little worried that the fin was too big. The Fins is also an old design, 20 years old.
They only had 26 inch harness lines: too short for me.
Wind was minimal, so a longer fin was actually nice. Easier to get upwind. Outhaul considerably loosened for better low-wind. Boom set slightly lower than good for the board trim, to compensate for the short trapeze lines, but that did cause the board to plane earlier.

I could get planing more and more easily. In the middle of the water, behind the reef, the wind was also slightly better, so sailed there most of the time. Shorter runs, but easier planing. Wind also slowly increased, even tightening the outhaul a bit.
Very nice to see the fish flying every now and then. Had occasionally seen 1 in Tenerife, but here there are many more. At one point I see a small head surface between the waves and immediately dive under again: first idea: a seal, but they dont live in the Caribian. Asked at the rental place: turtle!
Especially closer to the shore there were long strands of weed, unfortunately some got stuck to the fin. So sometimes stop to get everything off again. After a while it seemed to get less, or all the surfers had already broken it.
Set works well, the Fins did very well in the minimal wind. The chop was not so difficult that I would have needed a really good modern fin to give the board more control.
They didn't have many harnesses, onky one waist harness that fitted me and that was very worn out. While sailing, the velcro of the band often came loose, very strange feeling.

Sailed until 12:45. Typical French people on a tropical island: lunch, so rental closes and things have to go returned.
I could have sailed for a while, but the sun also became quite bright.
This was a very nice session, wonderfully warm, above and in the water. Certainly 2nd part the wind was a lot better and I could always plane. Despite not really great equipment, I really enjoyed it. Its not so often I get to sail in glassy clear warm water.

Galion Beach

11:15 1.5 hour Wind:
Board: Fanatic Blast 130 Ltd - Fin's Racer 46cm
Sail: Ezzy Cheetah 6.0
  Rented at Windy Reef on St Martin. In the beginning the wind was a bit minimal and difficult to get planing. Harness lines 26 inches, way too short: so boom lower, harness hook looser to compensate. Outhaul loosened considerably to have more power. After that, I could easily plane. The 46cm is quite stiff, but water is not really choppy, more swell. In the stronger wind, the board ran loose on the fin. Vin ran upwind very well. The Blast remains a good board. The range of the Cheetah is good. With only the outhaul, the sail can already be trimmed considerably, and even if the gusts are really hard, the sail remains stable. Set was wonderfully fast in the harder gusts. Without weed, the fin had no spinouts.