Came down fairly early to the beach today, after not sleeping very well owing to extremely disturbing post-Paddy dreams. These included weird videos of drink-fuelled car smash victims dissolving to their constituent components, until one burst into flames that spread incredibly rapidly to include me, burning me up, at which point I awoke with a cry and a start. Earplugged Adam slept on.
Eventually selected a Synchro 94l and a 4.2m sail, which required some shenanigans from Calloo, the main man at the station - did I say he's worked for Mistral there for 19 years? Blimey. Once again braved the shorebreak, and once again lost, basically because I hadn't realised that the beach is now comprised of rocks, not sand, after yesterday's bashing, and I couldn't stand up without pain and suffering, so was unable to correct the board's turning sideways against the wave. Bang, down we go, mucho embarrassment, and the board boy helps me out and holds it for me to have another go. This time I made it, just and left in reasonable shape.
Very gusty conditions, another different board/sail combination. too low a boom because I didn't correct it before leaving, and also extremely choppy - like the Solent with large silicon swell breasts once I got "out the back". Anyway, bashed in and out for around 40 minutes, made a couple of gybes (yay!!), missed loads more. In fact I took the GPS which was the coolest part of the day, and clocked a measly 21 knots max speed, and a distance of 7.29 nautical miles. It's extremely hard to go faster in chop, each wave collision saps speed and power, and the gusty wind also makes it hard to achieve the consistency for ultimate speed.
Eventually, wasn't making gybes, and felt extremely cold. A couple of runs before that I'd made the inside and outside gybes, and started to warm up in the watery sun, but hanging around in the water froze me up. Zoomed back into the beach, successfully negotiating the break, and even finding a sandy bit, further down wind from my original starting point - a tip for a tomorrow!
This all left me shivering on the beach, talking to Frederika, segelmadchen extraordinaire. Got dressed, settled on the Angulo couch and basically stayed there the rest of the day. My hands and arms are extremely painful, as are my feet from cracked heel skin, so sailing is a bit distressing once it stops being easy! Ah, the hero undone... It's supposed to be less windy tomorrow. hopefully that will help.
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