Just a cruisy day...actually NO!

Craig and I fronted up for duty at Woodies by 7.30 to find the breeze from the west at around 15, increasing to low 20s so had a cruisy sail around on the Manta 49 with 5.8 amongst the swells, waiting for the forecast Southerly, and then at 9.30am BANG!!!!! In she came, solid 40 - 50 knots with even stronger squalls - I recorded 56.9knots on my wind meter crouching down with my face buried in my armpit and leaning heavily towards the breeze. It was impossible to actually turn your head towards the wind as you just got pelted by driving rain and spray - very spectacular.

The water on the lee side of the spit was flat, but the change to the Southerly combined with the low tide blew all the water away. I managed one semi sheeted in attempt at a speed run (with the 5.0 that I had grabbed off Craig), but quite frankly it was just too windy! By the time I got back to the top of the course it was ankle deep. Packing up was incredibly difficult!

Dropped in at Pt Walter on the way home and I really should have gone out but it was 10 degrees and I took the soft option. I have heard a rumour that one of my team mates has something truly spectacular to post - but I won't steal his thunder just yet.

Heaps of wind at Point Walter today, 2 weeks not enough to heal cracked ribs and feeling pretty sore now but had to get out and try the Isonic W49, CR 6.1 & 26 F1, spent most of the time standing waist high in the water holding my gear down and watching Chris and Dan flying around.

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Quite a wild day at Mandurah - perhaps I should have stayed local - 5 minutes from home!

I think I was lucky today - could have been a lot worse - thanks for the help with my rigs guys - I was mesmerised by my wind meter!!! 

Well done to Bender and Hardie on their peaks!

Hardies .Variety ! chasing rigs across rds,a bit of volunteer SES work on a garage door,not mutch sailing,

Found it very difficult to get settled on such small sails (do not use em often enough!),   Also my fist sail on the CA44 (ex snides) a few little hints of its potential but work to do to get it all working together.

2boards,2sails, 2fins 2 gps units

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whoa... so thats what "windy" is...

quiet an interesting dauy down @ hardies, with the potential for some serious speeds... unfortunately with the masses of weed and high tide the run was too challenging to achive anything special. congrts to bender and hardie on thier speeds in the difficult conditions.

most runs on missile S +rsr5.8 +19-20cm weedie, hour on rsr5.8+sxs+23.5weedie

 2sec is garmin display, software = 37.61

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decided to make the sacrifice and chase the hour for some easy point...hope some else did the same..

great eventful day at hardies with lots of crew (lots of laughs as well!)

isonic 105 ssr 6.6,brushcutter weed 34

was looking ok for a 23 hour when i hit a lull and had to shlogg for 10 mins...spewing!...ended the hour in winds 35 to 40kn!

edit: all doppler except for alpha

will post some pics below

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A day to remember. Started at Pt Walter. 5.8m CL22S fin and SP40. It was HONKING. The most wind I've seen in a long time. The S in the fin stands for a few things... It started with

Symmetric, and moved onto... Soft, Small, Sideways, Spinout, Sh!t. I was rather gutted that I left my favourite 23 KA symmetric in Greece and had nothing else apart from some too-soft home made fins. I spun out on every run and was just trying not to load the fin too much in the broad, choppy conditions. In the end I changed to a much larger S with more rake and the SP44. It wasnt much better. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Cant complain too much seeing a bunch of 40s on the dial, but given how windy it was... AAAAAAAAAAAARGH

The wind swung too far south and died, about the time my hamstrings were cramping. Went to the cafe to catch up with friends and dave B called me to say there was still wind at Peli, so I went there. SP50, 6.6m and a CL29S. Upright. Better. I clocked some 37s and a 39, did an OK 1 hour and added 50km to the distance... feel a bit better. But still a little spewing about not having a proper fin for THE day.

Good to see the crew down there early. Dan was holding it all together on his old W52 and doing some smoking runs. Nice one. Glad you're on our team maaaaaate!!! Also good effort by Claude for getting out with his dud ribs in that. Hope Lao Shi is OK after pushing the envelope and wiping out big.

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Pt Walter turned it onto "optimum" for roughly 30min as the wind swung progressively from SW to S to SE.  Only a small window of opportunity as the gusts blasted down Blackwall Reach.  More than a few hair raising moments..... but alot of fun.... hope you also got out and had a good day.