The naked sailor

Tuesday is my day off, and as the sailboat is not used, I am free to take it out for a private trip. Normally my trips with paying tourists are only half an hour or an hour, so I can't go out too far, but this time I took the opportunity to make a longer trip. Yesterday I took Ling Ling out for a three hour trip, beyond the small islands which are governed by Taiwan, but close to the Xiamen shore. It's just four kilometers to the nearest Taiwanese island Dadandao （大胆岛）.
The weather was perfect for touring, good wind, but not too strong, and no big waves. A sunny October day, 27 °C, wind speed 10-15 km/h, from the East. The wind direction made it possible to set a course straight to Dadandao, where we arrived within half an hour. You can not land there, but it's OK to approach the island to within a couple of hundred meters. There were some tour boats hovering in front of the island, to allow the Chinese tourists to take photos of the big propaganda sign, which reads 三民主義統一中國 ("Three Principles of the People unite China"), refering to the political philosophy of Sun Yat Sen, who retreated to Taiwan after losing the battle with the Communist Party.
After a couple of tacks, we passed the island on the eastern side, and then we were truly out in the open sea, or at least in the Taiwan Strait, with much longer wave lengths (20 to 30m) than in the shallow waters around Xiamen. Sailing on the open sea is quite different than closer to the shore. I really enjoyed the long waves, and we even spotted a dolphin nearby! I had seen dolphins on an earlier trip, but only once. It's quite rare to see them. After a good look at the backside of Dadandao, wich is adorned with a large painted Taiwanese flag on a wall of a building, we headed East towards a small rock named Huzaiyu, also belonging to Taiwan, and then set course to Xiǎo Jīnmén (小金门 or Lesser Kinmen), which is much larger and unlike the smaller islands is inhabited.
Leisurely out at sea, I gave the sun the opportunity to reduce the colour contrast between the well-tanned and the still white parts of my body. In other words, I stripped naked. Much to the hilarity of Ling Ling, but she did not follow suit. Shortly after that, the ferry from Jinmen to Xiamen passed by, but at a distance large enough to let me continue sailing naked. It's a great feeling to be scaling the waves in the nude.
We sailed past Lesser Kinmen towards another small rock, named Binglangyu, with is closer to Xiamen, and does not belong to Taiwan. Close to that rock is a large floating fish farm, probably growing shell fish like oysters and clams. An area of several thousand square meters dotted with floating blocks of styrofoam, presumably all holding vertical lines held under water with a rock, to which shells can attach themselves.
Making another turn towards the Xiamen Convention Center, we returned to Xiamen Island's coastline, and another 45 minutes with the wind in the back along the sandy beaches brought us back to the beach where we started out.
A very nice trip, the best so far, and definitely an itinerary to be repeated with more people on board.