I think the last four weekends have now had at least one day of 40knots + wind. This weekend was Sunday (although the forecast was for moderate westerly, it blew ballistic southerly). We headed for Avon expecting the usual packed car park but it was nearly empty. Actually I got there a bit late to find Clyde, James and Rod huddled together in Clyde's van. It was rocking alarmingly but that turned out to be the wind. They were debating whether to phone the RNLI for a guy who seemed to be in trouble, and by the time they decided to do so he rocked up walking back from downwind.
Eventually we braved the mental wind, lashing rain, squally of even windier wind and total lulls and went out on 4.2s. It was weirdly empty, except for photographers. At one point these outnumbered the sailors on the water (although I've got no pictures to decorate this posting).
And actually I had a really good sail. I don't think I've ever much enjoyed stupid wind before but perhaps I've got used to it this autumn? The head of my sail was flogging so hard the batten came half way out of the sail. No good for jumping (unless you're James) but some Ok waves coming through (for Avon). Of the 'get to the top and explode' variety due to the wind, but fun.
Or maybe it was just that I wasn't scared after my wussing session from saturday (see Clyde's post below when I kept a very safe distance between myself and any lips).
Did manage to swim my way around the landing of one more backie as well. Meaning it's 6:4 in the great backloop challenge. By this rate one of us should win by the time we're 40.
And I guess that's it for the autumn. Not really looking forward to winter windsurfing session given how cold it was today. But you can't complain about this last summer and autumn.
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