3 categories

Nice hour+ on 125/7.2m then packed up as knee sore again. Picked up to 6m as I was packing, looked lovely, blue sky white horses and sand appearing

6 categories

Saturday 24^th June – windsurf **** Walk **** Fraisthorpe – sunny periods

F2 Ride 282, Tushingham Lightning 6.5, 38 cm fin. Wind – west 10 – 30 mph

30.36kt. max., 27.97 kt. Ave., 23.11 kt. mile, 53.10 km., 17.10 kt. alpha, 14.16 hour.

Good night in our spot just outside Fraisthorpe and the busy road nearby calmed down so had a quiet night:) Woke to nice sunny morning but didn’t seem that windy. Packed the van up and headed the two miles to the beach. Arrived, paid our £3 and I reversed into a top spot giving us great views down the beach with no one able to park beside us, even if it did give Mag kittens as it looked like we were hanging over the cliff! The sea was 300 metres away and looked stunning, the UK’s answer to Gruissan, in a westerly it looked just the same. We were the first windsurfers to arrive so it was looking like I was going to have to be the Guinea pig! We walked down to the water’s edge with the camera and it looked so much like a French beach especially with the sun out and the sea turquoise:) Unloaded the windsurfing kit before it got too windy but choosing a sail was a nightmare.  I had breakfast by which time a couple of locals arrived. I walked up for a chat but they didn’t seem in any hurry to rig. One of them was particularly welcoming when I said I had never sailed here before saying today should be good with the wind in the west, dead offshore making it perfect for flat water blasting.  He said to try not to venture too far offshore and that he had done 40 knots here. It looked like a top speed spot but not that many post on the GPS site from here :( He was hoping to rig 5.7 and the free stylers were rigging smaller, I went for my favourite away kit the 282 with the trusty 6.5. Mag followed me down to the water edge as I set off toward Barmston, I was warned that the nine wind turbines messed the wind up for a while but it should get stronger when you passed them. I struggled past the turbines and was unsure how close I could sail from the shore, fell in and couldn’t water start in next to no wind and was out of my depth, great start:( I swam in a bit to beach start and continued - soon hitting some strong gusts, thinking that I was going to be way overpowered hitting 28 knots. To be honest I have never sailed anywhere where the wind has been so gusty :( One minute you were flat out the next you were all but stopped, a very tiring way of sailing! I was the only sailor to go so far making it three miles to the second caravan site on the hill and would have gone further but the wind became even more patchy. There were several sailors on the water now and the beach by the van was filling up with large family groups enjoying a day on the beach.  Shame the windsurfing wasn’t living up to the earlier promise as the wind was dropping so I headed back to the van for lunch. An old boy windsurfer was then going out with 7.5 so it was looking like I might have to change but my gear was miles away. I was entertained by a couple of windsurfers with all the gear and no idea rigging up nearby, what a performance, must have taken an hour to decide what sail to use!!! Then swapped boards and sails definitely sending more time fannying about than sailing!

The wind did seem to have filled in but it was difficult to know as there was very little wind at the launch spot. The afternoon session was better and I even managed to plane for a full mile a few times! I got my longest and fastest run, breaking 30 knots by bearing off into the rougher water, just like Gruissan a little way offshore. It was hard to stay in the flat water as the wind was too light close in:( The afternoon turned a 3-star day into a 4-star day, just a shame the wind is so gusty. Time to call it a day and with the tide coming in it was not so far to walk to the van avoiding the horses that were doing a circuit on the sand!

I managed to get all my kit safely tied on the roof even if I did have to get help getting my mast apart! Then I had to untie it again to get Mag a batten out of the top box so she could fish her mobile phone out as it had fallen down the side of the seat!!! That kept her entertained for ages ;)

I had an all over wash in the van to get rid of the wetsuit smell and then had scones and jam, sadly no clotted cream :( Read and watched the world go by before going for a walk the way I had been sailing. With the tide high we had very little beach as we walked past the eroding cliffs with barley growing in the fields on top. We reached a stream crossing the beach so returned, Mag stayed on the beach while I walked on a narrow path on the cliff top and the views were lovely, check out the pics:)

The problem came as I neared the carpark and couldn’t get through and had to detour through a wheat field following the tractor tracks. Back at the van Mag had made a campervan special, tinned mince, mashed potatoes and mushy peas with white bread with loads of butter – yum yum :)

It was then a short drive to where we stopped last night and had a lovely red sky sunset:)