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Owner: Harry
Member

Member#: 186
Location:
Registered: 14-04-2003
Diary Entries: 418

7th October 2006
Windsurfing: Hove
Wind Direction: WSW
Wind Stength:
Surf / Sea State:
Air Temperature:
Sea Temperature:
Weather: Sunny spells
Max Speed:
Distance Covered:

Another unexpected 2 hour evening session at Hove, very similar to Wednesday. Forecasts were calling for W-NW winds dropping off rapidly after lunchtime and I was desperate for a sail after missing out on reportedly "epic" conditions yesterday (Friday) so I got up very early with the intention of driving to maybe Littlehampton to sail through the monster midday spring high tide. But...sod all wind in Brighton at 7am so straight back to bed. Eventually around 10am the wind was starting to fill in so went for a reccy at Hove, to be greeted by a gusty marginal wind and high-tide shorebreak lumpiness. Decided not to risk going out and thought that would that for the day.

But back at home around 2.30pm the wind was not dropping off as forecasted, plus it was swinging more onshore. Helped by the sunshine maybe...? (in October???) I ummed and arred about going back to Hove since it still looked very marginal, but decided that I would be proper pissed off if I didn't go and then heard later that it was actually windy, so back on the road I went. (The joys of living only 10 minutes from the beach mmm...)

Correct decision! A reasonable breeze was blowing when I arrived, and basher was planing solidly on his 5.8. I was still slightly dubious whether or not I would be properly powered up, so was very pleasantly surprised on launching to be planing straight off the beach after a couple of pumps. And then it kept on getting windier!!! For once I had timed my trip to the beach to perfection. :)

With the tide dropping it was another easy-launching-and-sailing groovy big kit session. A few small waves appeared for the odd small jump or backside-bum-wiggle but overall nothing particularly exciting. Nevertheless good to be out on the water, planing solidly for 2 hours under sunny skies and still very comfortable in the summer suit. I was very well powered on the 6.6 and could probably have been on the 5.8 quite easily for most of the session, but there was no time to change down before nightfall. I sailed like a muppet for the first hour or so with wobbly gybes, some of which were even dropped (lame excuse; I'm not so familiar with gybing big sails). But then I realised that for some unknown reason with this kit I'd been deciding that my feet were a more pleasant view than actually looking out of the turn. The gybes started to improve after that although still no properly planing exits with the big kit.

Although I missed out on the best days this week (thurs/fri), 5 sessions in 8 still represents a good start to October. Hopefully another one tomorrow (sunday).

Toys Used: