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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
3rd September 2011 Windsurfing: Isle of Sheppey Wind Direction: sw Wind Stength: 10/13 Surf / Sea State: flat Air Temperature: 22 Sea Temperature: 16 Weather: sunny Max Speed: 15.02 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 28 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) What a top weekend :) it started Friday 2nd with a look at the forecast and with 10/13 mph winds expected at the Isle of Sheppey I decided to take a chance and take my raceboard down to do the 53rd round the island race!!!! Mag and I left home 5:15 and arrived on the Island to a glorious sunset at 7:45 with our only hold up at the Dartford Bridge :( We went to Sheerness the start of Saturdays race and were not overly impressed, lots of industrial buildings,docks and a big sea wall so you couldn’t even see the sea :( After filling up with diesel at Tesco’s we headed out of Sheerness and ended up at Queenborough a nice little place and after finding some fish and chips even talking to a strange man in camouflage clothing but did discover the position of the Sheerness sailing club the start of tomorrow’s race. We then parked right by the water near the long jetty out into the river we great views of the moored boats, power station, dock cranes chemical factories!!!!! Saturday 3rd Sept. After a good night’s sleep we woke at sunrise to not a breath of wind :( took some pics, had breakfast and went for a walk to Sheerness docks and saw hundreds of cars. Then drove to IOS Sailing Club at Sheerness and the marshals were out so the race was on!!! You then had to drive up over the seawall and line up with the dinghies and rig on the move!!! I unloaded and rigged up a long way short of the club so I had to sail further than anyone!!! We then had to park past the club put suit on get my drink camel pak sorted and go and sign on and then go to the briefing, the windsurfers were first off at 10:30 sadly when the wind was at its lightest :) The star was set ¾’s of a mile offshore to avoid sandbanks and with 10:30 approaching Mag tried on my yellow flag and I set off for the start, sadly it was slow going and I missed the start by a full minute giving on windsurfer a head start and he continued to sail away on his Mistral Imco and 7.5!!! As the the wind was light and sw which is offshore you had a 10 reachy/run not in the harness but at least the sea was flat and it was a nice day to enjoy the view :) I had only gone a few hundreds metre’s into the race when I collected seaweed of my fin so I stopped to get rid of ot and my board upended and my head went right under!!!! I was third for ¾ of this open sea leg and was only caught by a couple – a father and daughter from Hythe nearing The Swale. I ran aground for the first time in Leysdown and had to walk a little way and then turned into the river and this was the best part of the whole race even though the tide was low which made it a lot narrower but the breeze was good and I was up on the rail and in the straps and pulled away from the boards behind!!! On reaching the old ferry crossing at Harty there was a 6 mile section which could be done in one tack and this is where local knowledge comes in handy as I ran aground a couple of times letting another windsurfer overtake me :( The next section was the worst a six mile windy river section when I was getting tired including having to sail under the road bridges!!! By this time the first of the cats had overtaken me :( but the end was in sight and after sailing past Queenborough it was a run in choppy river right past the large boats in the docks :( I went in once and my grip had gone so I reached over to the over side of the river by the power station, ran a little more and headed for the corner. Sadly I gybed too early and with the wind light and the tide pushing me back up the river I strugged to get around the corner letting 4 boats past :( With the end in sight we had a gusty reach to the finish; my only was when a dart overtook me to windward making me fall which I thought was abit inconsiderate!!!! But I made the finish – knackered but very pleased to complete the course 6th windsurfer and probably 12th over the line with Mag waiting at the finish :) It was chaos with boats everywhere and we had to carry my gear back to the car and with boats still finishing we decided we couldn’t wait for the prize giving so we went to explore the island and found some nice spots at Shellness and ended up staying at Harty just past the Ferry Pub where a wedding was in full swing, had tea and watched a fantastic sunset and slept right by the river near the slipway!!!! Photo Gallery here |
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