By 4pm there still wasn’t any sign of wind – well, not enough for windsurfing anyway – so I decided to jump on the Turbo Trainer and do an hours ‘recovery’ session to burn off some calories and make me feel as though I’d done something.

The turbo trainer session went well but as I got off I realised that the wind had finally picked up. I checked the weather station and sure enough it was now 20-25 knots with the odd 30 knot gust and looking good.

It didn’t take me long to decide that it was time to go windsurfing so I loaded up my wheel-barrow and headed across to the beach. I rigged my 5.6m sail and Naish Hybrid Freewave 86 board and got out there. My ribs  were still hurting from my crash a couple of weeks ago so I took it easy, but still managed quite a few nice jumps and some decent wave rides.

After blasting around in the normal spot and playing in the waves for about an hour I decided to finish the session off with a nice blast out to the buoy on the Dovey Bar and back.

It may have been a long wait for the wind today but it was worth it when it came!

According to the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station it hit 46.9 knots which is the biggest gust so far this year. Still quite a way off the 62.2 knots recorded on 12th Mar 2008. It’s nice having the weather station there so that I can check these stats and historic records from time to time.

I should really go windsurfing this morning to make the most of the wind that’s left, but I hurt my ribs whilst windsurfing yesterday and don’t think I’ll be able to manage it. The wind is beginning to ease a little now, once it’s dropped off properly my next job will be to get out in the garden and and check the damage done.

So far this year has been pretty pathetic wind-wise. its been good for the garden and for cycling but I’ve barely been out windsurfing – Just 21 sessions so far according to my diary entries. Yesterday was good though with a 25-30 knots wind all day. I went out at around 9am just in case the wind eased off and spent 3 hours on the water, covering a distance of over 40 miles.

The weather wasn’t great whilst I was out with cloudy skies to start with and then rain, but the wind was perfect, I was perfectly powered up with a nicely rigged 5m sail and my little JP wave board and the waves were nice too. Nothing too big as far as the waves were concerned but some nice waist to shoulder high, steep faces to act as ramps on the inside and then some bigger rolling swell out the back. As well as loads of big jumps I made one fairly convincing back-loop attempt and had a few nice wave rides on the way in. A perfect 5 star session.

Of course, once I got off the water the sun came out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for much of the afternoon, and the wind kept blowing too. I was half-tempted to go back out for a second session!

This is what it looks like from a satellite above the earth – I nearly coloured a whole section of sea in red!

I’d just been for a bike ride and when I got back the wind filled in beautifully so I headed across to the beach with my kit. It was windy enough for a 5m sail and my wave board so I headed out perfectly powered on smallish kit.

The wind was SSW so I was sailing out to sea and going a fair way out. Not only was I the only person on the water, but I was treated to some pretty extreme bird-watching too. Blasting along over the choppy waters I was surrounded at one point by loads of Manx Shearwaters flying just above the water all around me. Not only that but there were quite a few Gannets about too, some of them diving into the water just a few feet from me as I passed by. Quite impressive and a little more exciting than watching through a telescope from the shore!

I wish I’d taken my camera with me really as it would have been good to have stopped out there and got some photos of them. Although, if I had they probably wouldn’t have come so close.

Since then I’ve had a little more luck.

On Friday I managed an nice late afternoon windsurf session thanks to the sea breeze. I’d been for a cycle and a run before but the wind picked up so after the frustrations of the day before I just had to have a sail. I ended up Nicely powered with a 6.7m sail and my S-Type 104 – The biggest kit I have. The wind did drop after about half an hour on the water, but after the year we’ve had so far, half an hours windsurfing felt good.

Saturday was much better. There still wasn’t loads of wind but the sun was shining and a nice NW was blowing. At first it was only just enough for my big kit again so I went out on that, but the wind gradually filled in the whole time I was out there so that by the end I could easily have changed down to smaller kit. I didn’t, as I had to get off the water at 1pm in order to take Morgan to a birthday party, but I managed a good sail.

The sea was quite choppy and I wasn’t on my speed kit, but there weren’t any waves so blasting back and forth as fast as possible was the order of the day.

I’d noticed on one of the sites that I upload my windsurf GPS tracks to (SportstrackLive) that I was getting close to some of the records for the longer distance speeds. My top speeds are nowehere near the records, but my average speed over 1 nautical mile or more is good. This is probably because most people using these sites upload data from pure speed attempts and then have to get back upwind before doing another pure speed run. Their trip back upwind is slow, giving them a slow average speed.

In contrast if I keep blasting back and forth on long runs and don’t fall off then I can get a good average speed. So, that’s what I was going for and I managed to beat quite a few of my Personal bests. Here they are:

Admitted it’s not the 40 knots top speed that I’m after, but that was never on the cards whilst sailing such big kit on the sea.

Yesterday however looked liked the most promising day so far, NE’s and hopefully Ivor our katabatic wind would show up. Usually on such occasions he starts blowing early in the morning, sometimes around 4.30am and then builds until about 8am before dropping off, so I was all prepared for an early morning, first light start.

4.30am came and went without the appearance of Ivor, as did 7.30am. There still wasn’t a huge amount by Midday but the underlying forecast was for it to pick up again later in the day. At last, at about 1.30pm it started to pick up. I had to do the school run at 3pm so couldn’t get out yet, but by 3pm it was 25 knots, wall to wall sunshine and perfect for my bigger speed kit.

I collected Morgan from school and hatched a plan. Load up car, phone Anna and tell her to go straight to the estuary after work, go to the estuary with Morgan, rig up with Morgan helping so that I was ready to go when Anna got there and could take Morgan off my hands.

I did just that. When we got to the estuary the wind was in the 30-35 knot range with gusts to 40 knots. The speed channel was looking perfect, could today be the day? I rigged my 5.2m North Warp sail and thought I’d start with the bigger 80 litre board and then change down to the smaller speed needle if all felt good. All the kit is new and never been used so I need some time to get used to it but conditions were looking perfect for a proper speed session

Anna rushed home from work for me and was on the beach by 5.20pm. I handed Morgan over and walked to the water. Jumped on and all felt fine. There is always a little bit of apprehension when going out on new kit, especially kit so different from that which I normally sail, but it all felt fine. Straight onto the plane, I headed upwind to the speed channel, beared away onto a speed run, taking it easy just getting used to the kit. Halfway along, the wind dropped. Grrrrrr!!!!!!!  I didn’t even make it to the end of the speed channel before it dropped so much that I fell in backwards and had trouble water-starting.

I got going again and had one or two more goes, but there just wasn’t enough wind. What do I have to do to get to use my speed kit!

Needless to say I got nowhere near my 40 knot aim so the challenge to hit 40 knots continues.

There wasn’t much hope for today though and by school run time there was nowhere near enough. Dinner time came along so there was nothing for it but to have a huge curry and some cider. Then, later than usual the wind started filling in. Before I knew it the wind was hitting 25 knots so there was nothing for it but to give it a go. I was in two minds as I thought it would only drop as it had come through so late in the day, but if I didn’t give it a go I would only have sat there getting more and more agitated as it continued to blow.

I loaded up the wheel barrow with my Naish Hybrid Freewave 86 ltr board and a 5m and 5.6m rig and all of the usual spares. I rigged the bigger of the two sail, got on the water and there wasn’t enough wind. Great, it was going to be one of those wasted attempts yet again. I don’t give up that easily though so gave it another go and as I did the wind filled in. I got going and was soon blasting along nicely powered up as the wind continued to pick up. Before long it was a solid 25 knots and I was perfectly powered up and having a good sail. It continued to pick up, getting closer to 30 knots and then PING I snapped a footstrap screw as I carved into a turn.

Had it been anything else that I’d broken it would have been fine:

Harness lines? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Downhaul? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Outhaul? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Boom? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Fin? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Fin bolt? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Mast foot? Yep, I had spares on the beach

Mast extension? Yep, I had spares on the beach

The wind was now around 25 – 30 knots so I even had a spare sail and mast on the beach, but a poxy little footstrap screw? Nope, no spare! I could have ran home and got one but it was now 8pm and the tide was on the pebbles so I thought it was best to pack up and vow to always put a spare footstrap and screw in the wheelbarrow.

It was OK whilst it lasted, but I had hoped to be out for longer than 25 minutes.

This week looked promising with NE’s forecast all week, but as the days have gone by there just hasn’t been enough. It has got close from time to time with the odd gust but never filled in properly.

Today, Anna had planned to have the car all day so I wouldn’t have been able to get to the estuary with my kit even if the wind did arrive. As we were getting ready for school and work this morning, the wind seemed to be gradually increasing and just before Anna left it had over the course of an hour increased steadily from around 5 knots to 15 knots and was still building.

I quickly changed the plans and decided to give them a lift into work and school (which means driving in again later to collect them) so that I could have the car. I got back here at around 9 am to find the wind was now at about 20 knots with gusts in the estuary of 25 knots. Just enough so it was time to at last give my new kit a go.

I got back home and was about to load up the car when within the course of 10 minutes the wind dropped back down to 10 knots. What have I done to deserve that?

24 hour wind trace - 10am to 10am

Steve turned up around 9am, we had a coffee and it wasn’t looking particularly sunny or windy but we headed over to the beach anyway. There was a little bit of wind so we decided to give it a go despite the fact that it didn’t look great out there. That was the plan afterall and hopefully it would fill in.

I loaded up the wheel-barrow and headed to the beach, rigged my biggest board – a Starboard S-Type 104 – and biggest sail – A Gun Jam 6.7m and got out on the water. There was just about enough wind to get going and up on the plane but with only a 28cm fin staying upwind wasn’t really an option so all we could do was a few runs followed by a walk back up the beach. We tried again, but the wind was dropping if anything so we called it a day and headed back for a hot chocolate and to watch windsurf videos instead. Not a great session, but better than doing nothing.

GPS Track from windsurf session

We walked back across to the beach a few times during the afternoon to check the wind and will it to fill in and at about 3.30 pm it did. With the wind now averaging closer to 20 knots we headed back across. I didn’t even take the bigger sail this time, just my 5.6m, 5m and two boards. It still wasn’t howling so I rigged my 5.6m and the S-Type to start with but once on the water, with the gusts now hitting 30 knots this was a little too much, especially as the waves had increased in size quite a bit as well. I had a couple of runs on this kit and then changed down to my Naish Hybrid Freewave board for a while. It was nice to be out on the smaller board again, but there was the odd lull in which it wasn’t quite enough and with the waves threatening to flatten me now and then I changed back up to the bigger board. It’s better to have too much power in such conditions than not enough.

The wind continued to build though and we had a good session blasting about amongst the now quite large waves. In the end Steve got munched by a big one and destroyed his sail (all in a days sailing), so we called it a day, suitably tired and glad to have got some wind in the end.

Once back at the house and changed dinner of salmon, roasted vegetables and new potatoes was waiting for us.. Not bad!

It was a good way to round off the Easter holidays. I still haven’t had chance to try out any of my new speed kit yet, but the NE’s have to arrive soon.

After checking my moth trap (just a few due to the cold temperatures) and watching some of the Grand Prix, the wind started picking up so we got ourselves together and headed over to the beach.

Despite appearances with blue skies and whitecaps all over the water there wasn’t actually that much wind so I rigged my very rarely used biggest sail. A 6.7m Gun Jam. I don’t usually go out unless it is windy enough for my 5.6m sail so this big kit rarely sees the light of day. Once on the water it was a little difficult to get going but once up and planing it was actually quite nice to sail on the bigger kit. It’s nowhere near as hectic as smaller kit and everything happens at a slightly slower, more relaxed pace allowing you time to enjoy your surroundings rather than simply hanging on for the adrenalin rush.

A little bit more wind would have been nice, but I’m now looking forward to summer and will try to get out on the water a little more, even if it means getting the bigger kit out.