Land Sailing

Whooopeeee!!!!! I had quite an exhilarating adventure this morning. I went land sailing in Bonaire. For those of you who don’t know what land sailing is (I was with you just a few hours ago) it’s one of the fastest growing eco-sports and is pretty much a wind powered go-kart. Bonaire gets lots of trade winds so makes the island an ideal spot for the sport. The blo-kart is a three wheeled vehicle with a sail attached. You have handlebar steering with one hand and then your other hand holds onto a rope that is attached to the sail. If you want to go faster, you tighten the sail and to go slower you release the sail. Bonaire doesn’t have any long stretch of beach so they’ve created a course made entirely of calcium sorbate (?) from the nearby salt fields. I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun!!!! It was brilliant (as the Brits would say)!

It’s incredibly windy today, so there would be gusts of wind that actually lifted the whole kart off the ground and I was quite often driving on one wheel. I did crash into the barriers on one turn and lost my sail on another, but luckily I didn’t flip over (which is actually quite common)! I now have a deeper appreciation for the wind and feel bad for all the times I’ve cursed it under my breath. In fact, it makes up for my snorkeling tour being cancelled yesterday due to the wind! I forgot my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures to document my experience but I’m sure you can google land sailing if you’re curious to see what the karts look like. I highly recommend blo-karting once in your life!