There are some weeks when you just shouldn,t sail,this has been one of the best (worst) weeks ever

This was my third attempt this week to get a sail in ,with all the others the wind stopped as soon as i arrived at the beach. Today i had wind....0 to 30kt, NW,W,SW all in 2 sec. It was the worst i have had at the Pit. Started with the 5.8 on the CA 40 for a float session,Doh Wind came back up after i made it back to shore so i did another float session   Rigged the 7 on the AB,now I can float  did 2 runs with the board tail walking back up the course  Got the Kids pro & 5.8 did 4 runs,nice lot of wind this time SW & NW all at once,smashing back up wind through the sharp  3 " chop as the tide did its run back up the inlet  I give up, i,m just not mean,t to sail this week. At least i did,t break anything

2 categories

Man this 1 hour was hard work! I rigged 5.8m as the wind was only 18-22 when I started rigging. I thought I better rig the 5m just in case the wind picked up. By the time I had finished rigging the 5m was the best choice with 20-25 knots WSW. I had one run on the IS87 with the KA30cm slalom fin and came back and changed it for the TM26 speed. The wind felt pretty steady and I was comfortably powered up in the 5m so I started a one hour attempt immediatly.

All went well for the first 20 mins and then I bit of a squall came thorugh. No worried, just run the speed course a bit further and saw a 37 knots peak which for me is pretty good on the slalom board.

Things eased back a bit and was concentrating on nice gybes and relaxing up the straights. At 40 mins the wind started building again and I was starting to feel a bit on the edge, especially now I was not as fresh as at the start. On a couple of upwind legs the board was trying to leap into the air over the small chop and I was fighting the sail just a bit now and than. A couple of times I had to hang in to the run a little longer so I didn't have to gybe overpowered at 37+ knots! Got a 39 peak out of one of those which is pretty close the the quickest I have gone on a slalom board!

Finally, at about the 45 min mark I hit the water coming out of a gybe in a squall. The wind hit so hard as I filpped the rig it shot the board out from under my feet. Luckily I landed in the water pretty much in the waterstart position and only lost about 20 seconds but it really annoyed me. The wind did not let up for the last 15 mins and I was really on the edge a few times, wondering if I could make the next gybe. A few were less than text book but I managed to make it to 63 mins ( one run over the hour) and pulled into the bank for a well earned rest.

Criag arrived about 15 mins later just as I tried to have a run on the speed board. I did just over 40 knots, didn't look like there was much more in it so I gave it away. Pretty much just as Craig arrived the wind started to go all swingy and on/off. It was as turbulent as I have ever seen! Very uncomfortable to sail gusting 10-30 knots and swinging wildly from WNW to SW. Craig had a good try to find a board and sail combo that worked but it was a hopeless task so he finally chucked it in., Weird conditions!

I sure hope one of the Bay crew got a nice 1 hour.............