Owner:
Basher
Member
Member#: 165 Location: Registered: 09-03-2003 Diary Entries: 18
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5th May 2004
Windsurfing: South Coast places Wind Direction: Mostly WSW Wind Stength: Mostly F5 or 6 Surf / Sea State: surprisingly flat Air Temperature: Warm in sun Sea Temperature: Warmer now peed in Weather: Sunny along coast Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Well, it's still windy here in Brighton this evening, even though it's now dark as I write this. There are probably some people still
out sailing – I don't think I've seen so many windsurfers on the water as there were here this afternoon.
Me? Where did I sail? Hah! Where didn't I sail?
I knew Brighton waves wouldn't shape up until mid afternoon but, fearful of missing the wind we decided to check out some high tide
venues. I say 'we' because a convoy of vans set off from here at Midday. We hit Littlehampton first, only to find more friends parked
up there in their car. They weren't sailing. It was not that windy, and the water was surprisingly flat.
Should we wait? NO.
So then we went back to Worthing. Which at High Tide was also flat – or at least lumpy. Then we went to Shoreham by which time the tide
was falling again, but still there were no waves. Should we wait here perhaps? There were already people out sailing on 5.2s there, so
it was pretty windy.
In the end our party split. My old mate, Shorty, stayed to sail at Shoreham, as did Patrick and Lucy (who are now famous, as guest
testers in this month's Boards mag.). They ended all up on 4.7s, I heard later. Guy Cribb, David Donald and Matt Perch were the
celebrity sailors out too.
The rest of us went back to Hove where most sailed off Hove Lagoon. Swifty and the local team of grommets all sail there when it's wave
board or freestyle weather. The kids at Hove Lagoon are so good right now that sometimes you gotta duck when they fly overhead. I'm not
so old myself but my body won't do what those teenagers can do.
In fact it got pretty crowded there by late afternoon – 4.7's and 5.4's were the order of the day, which was way windier than expected.
Hove is part of Brighton nowadays and the difference between the two old towns is that Hove is flatter and cleaner. And that applies to
the waves too.
So me? I went back to the Basher Beach hut, boiled the kettle, and rigged my 5.2m. In all, four hours of great sailing, mostly in
sunshine.
Oh. And I should add that everywhere was surprisingly flat today – the wind was gusty like it was April, but these were summer waves.
Late May or June waves.
And, after my survey of half the south coast, can you guess where the biggest waves were today?
Maybe I'm not the one to ask. Suffice to say that parking is impossible and there are no more beach huts available.
But I'll make you a brew if you drop by mine.
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