Monday 12^th February – windsurf **** La Franqui – sunny but chilly – NW 10/30+

33.39 kt max., 31.54 kt ave., 9.88 hour, 29.49 kt mile, 18.60 alpha.

F2 Ride 282 + Tushingham X-15 5.8 + Gull winter suit.

Top night in the beachside camper aire at Leucate despite the good breeze blowing which we hardly noticed. Woke to another clear blue sky and the wind seemed to have dropped. After breakfast we head to the wooden jetty speed strip hoping to stop at the windsurfing shops to get a 4.60 mast and look for a really cheap 115lt. board but they were all closed:( Got our spot on the beach as yesterday and there were no windsurfers only the VW with it’s roof up way down the beach and a fisherman pushing a net in the water. It didn’t look overly windy so hummed and hared about what kit to use, after yesterday’s disaster when I broke my mast and badly damaged my board my options are more limited with the biggest I can rig at the moment is 6.5. but with the wind gusting to 30 mph I went with the 5.8 and the smaller of the two booms I brought. The wind was, as yesterday, too broad making getting upwind not easy as it pushed you too far offshore and I just don’t trust my gear especially as I am using the creased F2 282 ! I had a 2 star start and was cursing La Franqui saying I would never come again, under powered both up and down wind.  Sea bumpy too and cold only 8 degrees but I managed to break 30 knots and might have just scraped a 30 kt ave. and was on the verge of calling it a day! Went and had a chicken roll with Mag who walked back to the water with me to take a phone pic while I got some shots of the shells balancing on wind blown piles of sand, an idea Mag gave me from yesterday.  I decided to give it another try as the wind had filled in and was squarer and I had been joined by a freestyler. It was lucky I did because the day improved to 4 stars as I made loads of mile + runs sailing close to the shore avoiding the sand banks. If the wind stayed up I could sail all the way back. I was getting knackered but I just kept saying just one more run, in the end I did one run too many! Having improved my max. to 33.39 and getting a 31 kt ave. ( a proper speeder sailor would have got 40 kts) I was flying down the course close to the beach at 30 knots when I suddenly wiped out big style and when I surfaced I was holding 50 cm of my boom and large bits of my yellow board were floating away!!!!! The bottom where I had creased it yesterday had completely come away acting as a brake throwing me off the front! Why does this always happen nearly a mile from the van ???? and it was a slow slog back. So in two days sailing here I have broken a mast, boom and board :( and I only have a 80 lt. slalom board and a 4.30 mast left so if I am to do any sailing in Spain I will need some kit. Perhaps the time has come to push the boat out!

Back at the van I changed out of my suit as cold, had a cuppa and cake, then the fun started while Mag sorted the inside of the van I derigged. The interesting part was tying the kit on the roof in the 30 kt winds but with help from Mag we managed it and set off back to the aire at Leucate to de-sand! Disaster nearly struck again when we were passing the La Palme etang and a car coming in the opposite direction had stopped in the road indicating to turn left, a car coming up too fast behind had not seen them and ended up driving off the road and down a 5 feet drop. The car didn’t look too bad and the other car was helping out so we continued. At the aire with it still breezy we didn’t park at the more exposed beach aire but tucked in behind a fence in the North aire. Mag got busy getting rid of the sand while I rinsed my wetsuit then had a full wash, now I feel it a new man even if I have a bit of a stiff neck from my crashes. Thank goodness that’s it for windsurfing for awhile and I think we will head up into the Pyrenees, much safer skiing than windsurfing! I even had a delicious cold beer as Mag soon made the most delicious carbonara. Just sorted todays pics out and checked the gps results, not particularly fast but got some nice mile runs in iffy conditions and just missed out on a 30kt. mile!

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