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axxis Member Member#: 171 Location: Registered: 12-03-2003 Diary Entries: 18 |
2nd August 2003 Windsurfing: Vetch's Beach, Durban Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: 25-35knots Surf / Sea State: 3.5-4m swell Air Temperature: 16 Sea Temperature: 20 Weather: Overcast & chilly Max Speed: Distance Covered: Ouch. Never seen the sea this big. Massive SE becoming S swell causing 8-10ft barrels at Addington. Vetch's was relatively calm because of the bluff protecting it as well as the spring low-tide causing the reef to act as a barrier. Nasty conditions, though. Very gusty inshore as the wind was almost directly offshore and obviously roughed up alot by the land. Launched at about 9:45a with Gareth. Andy was already there and had come in to retune his rig. Easy planing in the gusts but at times temporarily becalmed. Range from 4-30 knots. Not easy. Water very flat, though, and easy to get into straps etc once going but still out of control due to huge gusts and tiring with the lack of consistency. Occasional 4-5ft hollow waves coming through. Hit one flat out and full powered. Luckily was unhooked (self-preservation instinct). Jumped straight into a 40knot gust and kit was ripped from me. While I hung in mid-air it performed a neat forward loop and I descended heading straight for the upturned fin. Managed to kick it aside and land relatively safely. Scary, though. Fishermen on the pier stared at me as if I was a lunatic. Not far wrong. Took a break to see if conditions would relax a little. Watched dismal tri-nations rugby performance vs the Wallabies at Thirsty's while the wind continued to howl outside. Mike, Alistair and Hal joined us; had a beer and burger and went back after the rugby to give it another bash. Andy was just coming in, extremities blue from the chilly wind and completely exhausted from fighting the conditions. He'd rigged his 4.6 but was still overpowered at times and swam the last 10m in. Had a couple of reasonable runs before I found my UV joint was ready to go. Lucky to spot it - came in to retune rig and saw it shredding. Would have been nasty to snap that out there in a strong offshore breeze. Hal had a few more runs and I had some rides on his kit. Terrifying stuff. His little screamer 268 is jolly fast but I couldn't get my huge feet properly in the straps which made me mighty nervous. All in all, good fitness, good experience but not much fun. Don't know what we could have done better, though. Conditions just got the better of us. Would have sailed more if my kit hadn't let me down but don't think I could have got more jumps or gybes in. The jumps were suicidal. I tried a smaller one and the board went straight into a forward as soon as the sail leapt into the jet stream. Nasty. The wind might have been cleaner further out and other side of the reef but probably well into the 40knot range so not sailable on our kit in any event. You get exhausted so rapidly in those conditions you don't want to risk being 200m out in an offshore gale and unable to sail in. Gets a 2 star rating. Not overall a pleasant experience but could hardly complain about lack of wind. |
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