Estuary Perfection

Looking at the actual wind forecast you wouldn’t expect a windsurfer to get particularly excited about the wind for Saturday. Especially seeing as High Tide wasn’t until around 10am, so there wouldn’tbe enough water in the estuary until about 8:30am.

According to the forecast, what little wind that was forecast was likely to drop to less than 10 knots by that time of day. Still, I had faith in our local katabatic wind called Ivor. As you can see, temperatures were forecast to be high and the hazy sunshine would lead to perfect conditions for our favourite wind phenomenon. You can usually count on Ivor in such situations!

Sure enough, when I got up at 5am he was already in full force with winds hitting more than 35 knots at our house. That would mean they would be 40 knots or more in the estuary. There was no rush though as there wouldn’t be ebnough water yet so I was able to have a relaxed breakfast and get some chores done before loading up the van and heading to the estuary. I know I usualy walk to the beach but when it’s an estuary session the half mile to the beach is just a little too far for the wheelbarrow full of kit so I take the camper instead.

There was no one else around so Anna said she’d some to the estuary to keep an eye on me – a new thing since my Heart Attack.

Once there it wasn’t quite as windy as I had hoped. It was still 5.0m weather so I rigged my 5.0m and 85 litre board. Whilst waiting for Anna to wander down I also rigged the 5.7m and 104 ltr board. The wind was already a little lighter than it had been so it may have been dropping off aready. It therefore made sense to be prepared.

This is actually what I headed out on once Anna arrived and it proved to be perfect. I was well powered from the start and able to go whereever I wanted in the estuary. There was a little bit of chop but nothing too bad. I headed upwind a little so that I could go on some long runs from the River Leri to Aberdyfi and back. There was a little patch just before the main channel where the wind was a little lighter and then some decent sized chop and rolling swell in the channel itself. This then led to flat water just in front of the beach at Aberdyfi that was perfect for a nice lay-down gybe. Having headed upwind to get to Aberdyfi a few times I of course had some lovely down-wind broad-reaches at speed to get back to Ynyslas.

I popped in to see Anna once or twice. Mike turned up on the beach to go kitesurfing as well. I helped him launch and then we were both on the water together. This included a nice run back from Aberdyfi where I caught him up so sailed really close to him for a while. All good fun and about as chilled a session as you can get whilst being totally powered up the whole time.

Tags: WindsurfingYnyslas