Owner:
Basher
Member
Member#: 823 Location: oban. scotland Registered: 15-06-2004 Diary Entries: 1
Mood: happy
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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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