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Saturday 12^th May 2012 – windsurfing **** then walking cloudy but sunny later

After breakfast we packed up and drove to Gruissan beach.  Instead of driving through the dreaded chicane we drove along the canal and parked at the end near the camper aire near the start of the Defi Wind which starts this coming Thursday and tents are up and the security jet bikes are here in force!!! And several sailors are here already- I’ve never seen so much expensive kit!!! The trouble with parking as most sailors did as Gruissan beach looks like something from the Somme with huge trees washed ashore and the beach looks soft to drive on :( is you have to rig in the car park and try and sail out of the small harbour in front of the windsurfing shop or swim your kit across the canal and clamber over the rocks!!! As I have already lost 2 fins :( my choice of kit is limited to my speedboard or my raceboard with a big 40cm fin – not the best for fast sailing in shallow water!!! – I tried both shops that sell windsurfing stuff in Gruissan to get a fin with no luck so will have to try Leucate. You are quite sheltered in the rigging area so it is hard to gauge the wind??? It seemed to be picking up so was going to rig the 7m but when downhauling the sail the top section of my mast just snapped!!!!!!!!!! :( :( :(  So I throw caution to the wind and rigged the 8.5 and had the dubious of having the largest sail on the water by at least one and a half metres and you not see many raceboards here!!! In the end the kit wasn’t too bad abit over powered at times and even under sometimes:( I spent over two hours reaching to Port-la-Nouville lighthouse which is good fun but the trouble here is because of the direction of the wind it’s a tight reach both ways and you are fighting to stay upwind both ways:( I landed in the corner swam the canal to met up with Mag for lunch – she had been reading after walking along the canal to Gruissan market and watching the antics of the French windsurfers :) I had another hour or so in the afternoon but the wind had swung pushing you farther offshore :( I had one blistering run to the lighthouse as the wind increased hoping that my gear would hold together!!!  Gave up in the end and sailed past the harbour and tried the beach to the left but very gusty so beat back into the small harbour and packed up.We then had a walk along the beach and I had an interesting time tying my gear on the roof as the wind was strong now!! We then drove to our favourite spot by the small etang at Peyriac-de-Mer and went for a lovely walk along the wooden walkways to the town :)

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Fanatic Cat and Tushingham Lightning 8.5