With a decent forecast for wind, Steve and I planned a windsurf session on Sunday once again. I therefore didn\u2019t go for my usual Sunday morning run \u2014 I didn\u2019t think my joints were quite up to that before a windsurf session. I had at least managed a nice mountain bike ride on Saturday afternoon, so if anything, my legs were still recovering from that. I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t that long ago that I\u2019d have gone running before breakfast, mountain biking in the morning, windsurfing in the afternoon and then probably done something else in the evening as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days, one decent session is probably enough. Steve arrived around 10:00 am, so we had a coffee, walked to the beach, watched some videos and caught up. It\u2019s always good to have a chat and see what Steve has been up to \u2014 after 25+ years, he\u2019s basically part of the furniture at this point (in a good way). We\u2019ve done quite a lot together over the years, and he\u2019s still up for most of the same adventures. We\u2019re also both getting creaky at about the same speed, so he understands the reality of it and is probably quite happy to take it a little easier now and then as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, with the wind still blowing and the tide now having dropped sufficiently, we headed over to the beach with our windsurfing kit. There was no real hurry as the wind was set to last all day, and things would only improve as the tide dropped further. I was soon rigged, but waited around for Steve to get ready so we could head out together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some reason, it was quite difficult out there. I was on an 89-litre board with my 5.0 m sail and was a little overpowered really. I headed all the way down to the estuary, struggling to keep any ground upwind through the incessant whitewater. The plan had been to head towards the lagoons at the estuary mouth where the water is flatter and we could hopefully have an easier session. However, I fell in on the gybe and then struggled to get going again thanks to the strong currents. Despite having plenty of wind, the current was grabbing the board, spinning it around, and I was drifting out to sea at quite a speed. If you zoom in on my Strava GPS trail, you can see how far I drifted in just a few seconds while trying to waterstart. Once I worked out what was going on, I was back on the board and heading to where I\u2019d started \u2014 through walls of whitewater. Maybe sailing in these channels wasn’t such a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n