Cape Cod in November

Well, I did want to write about the pear cheesecake I made, but looking at my pictures from this month, I found some nice ones I wanted to share with you. Last Sunday we had a great day of windsurfing at Kalmus in mid 30mph winds. I ended up sailing on my smallest gear - my 3.4 sail and the 72l Angulo wave board. There are no great waves in Kalmus, so the board might have been a bit mismatched, but I had a ton of fun on it! After being out on my 90l Skate two days before in Chapin and trying to get the rails to catch in the waves, I really wanted to try my wave board again and put it back in the van. It felt amazing - so responsive and it picks up amazing speed going down the waves! There is no picture of me sailing, but I managed to hand my camera to someone to take a picture of 4 of us in the Ianovated wetsuit that kept us warm this day:

Peter, I, Jay and Alex in our Ianovated suits

Exhausting myself for several hours on Sunday I had a little cold on Tuesday and just walked along the beach while Peter sailed In Cape Cod Bay. Here are a few pictures from the beach for all of those that have never been on Cape Cod:

Coconut Loaf Cake

I have been trying several coconut cakes in the past, and while most were pretty good, I never found the perfect one - until now. This is a very simple "Rührkuchen" (similar to a pound cake) that is moist, has a great crust and an amazing coconut taste.

The picture did not turn out too good, and definitely does not do the cake justice. 

I do believe most of the great taste is due to the coconut greek yoghurt I used, but it could also just be the right combination of butter, flour, sugar and coconut. Baking this cake was a bit of a "let's see what we have and mix it all together" thing. For example I ran out of regular sugar and ended up using about 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and the triple sec has been standing in our kitchen for a while and I simply decided I need to start using our alcohol that no one drinks. With all the powdered sugar I was not sure about using all sweetened coconut, so I used a mix of sweetened and unsweetened. Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1 cup sugar (used half regular, half powdered)

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup corn starch

• 1 cup shredded coconut (half sweetened, half unsweetened)

• 150g coconut greek yoghurt (=1/2cup)

• dash of salt, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• generous dash of triple sec (~2 tbsp?)

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for ~60 min.

Light Wind Freestyle with Air

During our Hatteras vacation in October I got to try an inflatable, sailable SUP. Peter and I took it out on a nice light wind day to see how it would feel compared to our regular light wind boards. The idea of an inflatable sounds awesome - it saves a ton of space compared to our regular SUPs and in my case would probably replace my SUP and the Bic Nova. So we took the opportunity to try the 10'4 Fanatic Fly Air for some light wind freestyle. Here is a video recorded with a mast mount:

Very quickly after starting to sail I removed the fin - which made everything feel so much better for light wind freestyle. The fin had been collecting lots of weeds, and since the boards has two small, permanently attached, side fins, you do not really need the center fin for the light wind tricks and spins. The inflatable did have a bit of a bouncy feel to it which made jumping up and down on it a ton of fun, but needs some getting-used-to when taking big steps on the board. It felt a lot more stable and less spinny than my 170l Bic Nova. This made any moves relying on the board keeping direction easier than they would be on my short Nova, but moves that turn the board took a bit longer. Peter felt like the mast mount was a bit too far forward for his sailing, and the nose did dip in the water frequently when he sailed.
Overall it was a lot of fun to sail, and I think this could be used for light wind sailing, flat water SUP'ing, and even for catching some small waves. Now if the inflatable SUP's only had some system for the inserts that allowed rail rides without having to worry about damaging the SUP... Considering the current insert, we did not deem it save and refrained from trying rail rides on it.

Special thanks to Brian and Ocean Air Sports who made it possible for me to try the SUP! I love that we still have windsurfing stores where you can try the gear you are interested in!

Halloween Sailing on OBX

Usually it is windy on Halloween. This year we were supposed to leave the Outer Banks (OBX) on October 29, but the wind forecast looked to good for Oct 31 to leave just yet, so we stayed for a couple more days. The wind came not quite as strong as promised but stayed the whole day. I sailed pretty much the whole day with a long lunch break. In the morning I took out the video camera to get some footage of me sailing. The goal was to finally get a Flaka, and the first try of the day was the best one all morning. Enjoy the video: