Meeting the moment

Carbon Footprint 'Meeting the Moment' with the Clif Bar environmental protection promotion / photo competition of the same name. Like her picture or add your own, and Clif Bar will donate to your choice of one of five environmental not for profit organisations. I am sure there is a veritable plethora of awesome actions shots loitering on your hard drives, fair readers. Not quite sure what the general sporting population will make of foiling, the best thing is that it comes under the category of 'Awesomeness', nice! Vist: http://www.meetthemoment.com.

Going to California

In the excitement and long to do lists of relocating to Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area where Adam is working with Artemis Racing’s America’s Cup campaign, posting to Foiling Boat Adventures has taken a bit of a back seat. All I can say is sorry. However Foiling Boat Adventures is now back on line and with giant 72ft foiling catamarans in the Bay there are sure to be plenty of adventures, foiling related and otherwise.

Seeing Stars

It's Sail for Gold and the world's sailing stars have descended on sunny Weymouth for some world cup sailing action. As if galavanting with the Mach 2 wasn't enough, Carbon Footprint has been a bit neglected as I have quite literally had my hands full providing physiotherapy for the Sail for Gold competitors. Eager to repay her for being so understanding, I managed to take advantage of a quick break today whilst everyone was sailing to take the Print out for a spot of spectating, (a word she always seems to translate as showing off, not sure how that happens).

I asked The Print which class she wanted to see, apparently she has a soft spot for the big strong boys in the Stars, a girl can't turn down a request like that, so out to sea we headed... The course was miles away... I couldn't even see the fleet as I came out of the harbour. 45 minutes of downwind foiling directly out to sea later and we were almost there... In fact I think we were almost in France... should have brought my passport. Thank goodness for Adam's epoxy work, I didn't fancy breaking something vital so far from home.

The racing was game on in a lovely sunny Weymouth bay, should definitely have brought my camera, doh! So, just how long does it take to hike home when you have sailed downwind for 45 mins? Suffice to say a long time! Fortunately I had my Crew Fuel to power my journey home, not quite sure how I would have managed it otherwise.

I went to Foil Fest and I woke up in a bar in Benidorm

Just how does a self respecting girl let that happen? Stay tuned to find out.

Coming up, (once I have downloaded it and achieved a small but notable victory over technology), some fantastic moth photography courtesy of Mr May.... oh and the all important gossip on THAT holiday romance!

It's all about trust

A number of you may have been worried about how Carbon Footprint was feeling about my exploits with the Mach 2. She was particularly touched by those of you who in fact contacted me to express this concern. Fear not, she has never been far from my mind and will be justly rewarded for her support and trust in my foray into Mach 2 world with a new round of upgrades. A bunch of flowers may not go far enough to make up for working late with the secretary but a new ride height control, better wand system and the promise of a trip to Australia more than make up for a brief fling with a Mach 2!

Trust is a two way thing and just as Adam trusted me to take his boat to Silvaplana he was also to have to trust me once more. Ok, so not strictly a two way thing, more an everything my way thing, but what is a girl to do? Many of you may be asking yourselves what could require more trust than your girlfriend spending a week in foreign lands with your Mach 2? Had I secured a job oiling up the six packs of Calvin Klein models mid photoshoot? Had the call come in from George Cloony that he needed a partner for the upcoming Oscars ceremony? No, this was going to require trust on a far deeper level...

It had been meticulously designed, slaved over in the workshop, ok so the Boat Yard at Beer did a lot of the work, (saving me from endless sanding, I owe you boys big time!), it is a world first, a milestone in Moth sailing history, sailed only twice before in the capable hands of Adam May. Yes, I was about to become only the second person to go Mothing with a wing sail!!! I was pretty nervous to say the least, breaking it was clearly going to mean more than washing up duty for a month and lets face it a wipeout is never far away when I’m Moth sailing. I least I knew I could trust the Mach 2.

I got on, righted the wing, so far so good. Carbon Footprint had taken Adam out of instruction giving range, I was on my own and I was scared. OK, this can’t be that hard, what do I know about wings? The have them on airplanes, you ‘put the flaps down to take off’. What do I know about foiling? ‘Bear away, shut your eyes and think of England’. I did both these things, and trusted in the Mach 2.... We started slowly at first, would we lift off before the end of the runway? Trust in the laws of physics... The apparent wind generated, we accelerated, the apparent wind generated, we accelerated, the apparent wind generated, you get the picture..... oh my word!!! Before I knew what was happening, or could open my eyes and attend to important matters like steering, we were approaching the psychological 20 kt barrier, and the far more physical barrier of the harbour wall.

Since I am writing this I clearly survived the experience as did Adam’s wing, phase one of destruction testing ‘Let girlfriend loose with it’, well and truly passed. Adam may have a few design upgrades in mind, all I have to say is that it’s going to look so good in pink.