Monday 24th – Windsurf **** - Portland Harbour – sunny start then heavy squally showers.
F2 282 Ride with Tushingham X-15 5.8m and 30 fin.
Fin – 30.28 knot max., 28.09 knot ave., 18.28 knot hour, 21.66 knot mile, 81.70 km., 18.98 knot Alpha.
We are heading down to the wilds of Devon for a family Christmas and as a couple of years ago I was hoping for a windsurf at Portland Harbour on the way down. We were way laid an hour or two to make a small detour to see my Dad before Christmas to pick up a huge pedal tractor for our Grandson and had a lovely two hour catch up before setting off on the journey South at 1.30. Things went well until we got snarled up on the dreadful M 25 but we made to our overnight spot, Maiden Castle carpark just outside Dorchester. We had a bit of a disturbed evening with youngsters in cars playing loud music, the worst being mindless rave music but luckily, they left around midnight. We can’t see the point to coming to a remote spot in the middle of a wet and windy night playing crap music but then again, we are getting on a bit! After that we had quite a good night even if the wind was a little noisy but we woke in the dark but as Mag made a drink the sun peaked around the large hill fort as a series of dog walkers and joggers arrived! After breakfast we drove the 10 or so miles to park at the café end of Portland harbour in lovely sunshine with a good WSW wind blowing and only a couple of windsurfers there who were rigging around 6m. I wanted to get on the water as soon as possible as it was supposed to rain later and with wind expected to be gusting to 40 mph I rigged my 5.8 for the 155 lt. board. I hadn’t really got a plan today, try for an hour and do a few miles as I find going fast here next to impossible for some reason and cant get anywhere near the speeds of the local experts:( I had a pleasant enough couple of hours while the sun was out, to be honest at this point I was under powered especially in close to the shore where the water was flattest but the wind was particularly up and down but I had loads of fun gybing in water I was rarely out of my depth which makes this an ideal winter venue but to be honest not one of my favourite venues, very frustrating as you think it would be easy to sail 30 knots but I am missing the secret at the moment! I had more fun blasting a little further out in the rougher water where the wind was more constant but the speeds were way slower! Then the sun disappeared as the dark rain clouds appeared and we started to get some really heavy showers including a couple of rainbows and the wind really picked up but I still couldn’t get any really fast runs, the best I could do was break 30 knots a couple of times! I checked my gps and decided to stay out until I had done over 40 nautical miles and, in the end, did 45 which translated to 80+ KM, I also got an OK hour, my first on the water not bad considering I was underpowered a lot of the time. It was fairly quiet out on the water but you did have to keep an eye open for several kitesufers doing big jumps. I stopped to have a look in the OTC windsurfing shop to see if they had any second-hand Slingshot Windsurf Foil boards but sadly, they were closed. Then with the rain really heavy and being out non-stop for three hours I decided that I had had enough and decided to call it a day. I then had to pack up in the heavy rain, even managing OK to strap my boards to the van roof without too many problems despite the strong winds. I was pleased to get out of the wet wetsuit and warm up in front of the diesel heater although it was not cold in the slightest out on the water. Then a quick wash, a bite to eat and set off for deepest Devon. It’s the best part of two hours to reach our destination but it included the beautiful Jurassic route along the beautiful Dorset coast:) Boy have they had some rain down this way as the Devon country lanes were awash with running water. The journey was well worth the effort when we meet our Grandson Arlo who is very excited that Santa is arriving later tonight!!! After a great homemade fish pie for tea we have a nice evening catching up before retiring the van for the night absolutely knackerd!!!
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