6 categories

Brrrr! I heard afterwards it was the coldest day of the year

Peter and I hatched a plan to try to improve our team position. He dragged me out of bed at some stupid hour to catch the morning low tide and we fired a couple of NM's down the Yanakie channel. Angle of the wind was about the best I have had here but was not much over 20 knots and we needed 5.8's and 80+ litre slalom boards. Bit of fun though!

We tried a few Alphas in a very unlikely spot and they were not too shabby either considering the lack of wind. We clenched our butts a few times in the shallows but happily no sudden undignified stops.

We planned some distance and a 1 hour attempt but it was obvious it wasn't going to happen at low tide so we retired to the warm fire for a couple of hours and waited for the sandbars to be covered. Getting back into wet wetsuits was challenge (9 degrees here today). When we finally got back we had some really good fun runs across the shallows back and forth on 1nm runs. I was very tankful for that as it ment only half and many Gybes as usual with my wooden fingers and feet. The wind did not ho;d up quite as well as we would have liked for the full one hour. Both of us had a few floating and pumping episodes but I think we need to remeber this strategy for 1 hour during the winter NW'ters. By the end of an hour the wind had got very iffy. We tried to continue to rack up a few KM's but it was a lost cause so we called it a day. Glad we did because it hit me how exhausted I was while we were de-rigging.

I am glad Peter twisted my arm as I probably wou;ld not have gone out otherwise, but it really was a lot of fun.

Starboard IS 87, 2010 KA Koncept 5.7m on RDM (very sweet ), Lessacher Duo speed 28 fin which worked brilliantly. Secure, forgiving and felt very quick off the wind for it's size. The rake shed weed as well which is really nice when you want to keep going for a one hour.

4 categories

Out of bed at 4.30am, out the door at 5.50am to arrive at the PiT at a chilly 9 degrees at 7.45am. No Daffy - scooted back to his place to see if he was still sleeping. We both ended up on the water at about 9am doing the desperate, mid winter effort to claw back some points before the end of the month. I haven't had a sail since the 9th of June, thats how bad it has been. Headed out with both of us rigging 5.8s which was perfect.

Hit the water at almost dead low tide in about 16-20 knots. Did a couple of NM runs up and down the Yanakie channel. Reckoned we'd got good enough speeds so tried some alphas -tick, next category. Then the wind jumped up to 25-30knots so we came in and rigged smaller - me 4.4 and Daffy 5.0. Headed out again but I was a bit pooped by then. Both getting a bit tired so we stashed the gear in the dunes and headed back to Daffy's for a hot shower and some lunch and found that our NMs were good enough.

Near to full tide at about 1.45pm we climbed back into the wet rubber and headed back out to try for our 1hrs and some distance up in the western end of the inlet inside the bank where it was very sweet and fairly smooth cruising. Eventually we were let down by the wind finally dropping so we were coming off the plane. Called it a day a bit short of our aim of 116km each.

Finally home and unpacked by 7.30pm. Total madness and no chance I'd be doing this mid winter if it wasn't for this damn competition! Glad I did though!

2007 JP Slalom 85L, 28cm JP slalom fin, KA Koncept 5.8 and briefly 4.4