Owner:
Nick
Member

Member#: 218 Location: Registered: 11-05-2003 Diary Entries: 42
Mood: don't like winter.....too dark
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25th October 2005
Windsurfing: Aberdovey Estuary Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 30-40+ knots Surf / Sea State: close chop Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: mental Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Arrived just before high tide to find a couple out already. Ominously one guy was changing down from a 4.5m to a 3.3m sail and another
on a 4m looked well overpowered.
Rigged my smallest sail (4.5m Storm) with max downhaul and outhaul..... hoping the wind would die down a bit. Fortunately I closely
checked all kit before going out and I'm glad I did because the u/j tendon had a large tear and would have failed on first run! Didn't
have a spare but fortunately the guy on the 3.3m did and was happy to let me borrow it - aren't windsurfers a nice breed!
Finallly launched .... 1st run out was very hairy, totally overpowered but had to bear away to stay in the estuary .... tide opposing
wind now going out rapidly. Repeated this a few times but getting blown out of the water more and more frequently as the wind
increased. Quickly got knackered and came in for a break hoping the wind would ease off. It didn't.
One of the other windsurfers had been keeping an eye out for the guy on the 3.3m and mentioned he hadn't seen him for a while. None of
us could see him and we were just about to alert the lifeboat, but someone had beaten us to it. He'd been seen drifting out towards the
Dovey bar by some walkers. It transpired his boom had broken in a major wipeout and the tide had quickly taken him out to sea.
Eventually he ditched his sail and paddled back in. The lifeboat eventually found him and recovered his sail too.
The wind wasn't dropping so decided it might be wise to call it a day....didn't want to have to calll the lifeboat out again!
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