Did a couple of serious winter trips, wetsuit did well, even if I was a bit crap. Only a few hours on single days, no weekend trips to speak of. Even now the water feels cold, despite the increasing amounts of sun.
I was looking forward to the first club event, down at Marazion in Cornwall. Went down on the Thursday night, found the campsite, then slept. Managed to get out on the Friday, right at Marazion beach. Fairly wavey, and spnt a lot of time swimming - still having big trouble getting the stupid sail out of the water so I can water start... What have I forgotten? At one point, a RIB rescue vessel for the UKWA racing event on at the same time went past and the guys asked if I wanted help! I refused it, but when they said they were going in for lunch, said that if I was still there after lunch to pick me up regardless!. I did get going though, but I was pretty tired by then, so took it easy after that.
The rest of the weekend was spent not sailing - the wind pretty much died although the surf stayed big. I went surfing on Saturday at Marazion on the JP, which was amusing but not very successful. Wore a lot of the smoothskin off the wetsuit on the non-slip, which wasn't so amusing. Sunday Juan lent me his surfboard, which I perservered with for a couple of hours down at Gwithian on the other side of the coast.
Cornwall is amazing, there's a spot for every wind direction within 15 minutes! It's so skinny... And the scenery is great, the wind always seems to be blowing (except for this weekend), looking at the charts compared to the South Coast, and, well, it felt like a holiday.
Finally, I did some kiteflying on the Monday, again courtesy of Juan. First time I've flown a powerkite, and very instructive it was too. It's certainly put me off kitesurfing, at least until I had achieved total mastery of kiteflying. It's easy to see how people get splattered.
Since then I've had a couple of South Coast trips, but not until the last two weekends (7-8 and 14-15 May) has there been much wind. Last weekend was brilliant - Poole Harbour at Sandbanks on Saturday, and Bramblebush on the Sunday. Bramblebush is totally idyllic. Looks like a Caribbean island, with proper dunes, sand and flat water. Spent lots of time blasting about, getting the hang of sailing again. I'm definitely improving in respect of control and sensitivity.
This weekend was Hill Head allegedly, but ended up sailing at Calshot Saturday and Hill Head Sunday. Wind was forecast, but dropped lower than expected. Got out using my 7.5m, which feels huge... and then spent the afternoon working on tacks (ok) and gybes (not ok!) with a 4.7m in a lagoony bit. Useful, but as ever, probably learning bad habits rather than good stuff.
Oh and the waterstart? Worked out why the sail doesn't come out of the water! You have to pull it forwards, whilst pumping it slightly, that gets the clew out, and keep it fairly low, so that the wind doesn't drive it into the water backwards. Then it's easy. I guess the dratted 7.5m has some uses! Other than it has to be on the bottom of the rack, or the door doesn't shut :)
Progress on sailing waves: mmm, maybe 1 out of a possible 100. But it's still gonna happen, and I'm even more determined to get maximum time on the water.
