Owner:
Nico
Member
Member#: 1933 Location: Leamington Spa Registered: 01-06-2006 Diary Entries: 12
Mood: Reflective
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17th April 2004
Windsurfing: Pagham Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: F 5-6 Surf / Sea State: Flat with chop Air Temperature: ? Sea Temperature: 9 degrees C Weather: Sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
After watching the forecast from about Wednesday and not having got out in
jolly old Blighty this year I thought it was time to give it a go and put
all my new holiday skillls to good use in the more demanding conditions
here. I wasn't sure the wind would arrive in daylight hours and when I woke
up it was grey outside. Would the wind arrive with rain?
I thought there was no point in arriving before about one o'clock as there
is often a shore dump for an hour or two after high water and the wind
wasn't forecast until later in the day. When I arrived I thought I'd have
to wait for some wind. There certainly wasn't any sign of wind on the way
down. Of course there aren't that many leaves on the trees yet so it's
difficult to judge.
Anyway when I got out of the car it was obvious there was wind so I
unloaded and got rigged up as it was obvious that it was blowing and the
shoredump was non-existent. Most people (the Welsh Harp brigade were down
for a session with Simon Bornhoft) were changing down to 5.4s or
thereabouts so out with the 5.5 Storm (still looking like new - a testament
to too much summer sailing).
The first few runs were a bit wooden but I soon got into the swing of
things and despite being pretty overpowered at times I went for plenty of
gybes and on one run made an outer gybe followed by an inner. All that
foreign practice had paid off. Otherwise it was just a case of handling the
chop and the power. Waterstarting was a piece of pee with quite a few
Margarita waterstarts (that's where you just put both feet on the board and
get yanked onto the plane in one go). Staying upwind was the easy option,
too.
As the tide dropped it was getting difficult to stay away from the shallow
areas upwind so eventually knocked it on the head after 3 hours or so.
There were still people out at six.
The new mark on the Mulberry harbour makes it look like a mini Fastnet at
low water. At least we know where it is again.
So, first day out this year and a totally classic day of 20+ knots of wind
mixed with sunshine and still light when I got home at 7.30. Worth 5 *s for
that alone irrespective of my performance. And it was a weekend! If I get
three more like that this year I'll be happy.
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