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Friday 7th September– Windsurf ***** - Portland Harbour – mainly cloudy.

Fin – 28.90 knot max., 27.35 knot ave., 18.43 knot hour, 24.71 knot mile, 193.16 km., 19.61 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham X-15 7m and 36 fin.

Top night in our little campervan at the National Trust carpark for Badbury rings after having a nice afternoon looking at Kingston Lacy house and gardens:) With a nice westerly forecast today it was only a 25-mile drive to Portland Harbour stopping en-route to put £106 worth of diesel in the van! Parked up at the café carpark at the opposite end of the harbour to the sailing academy just as it started to rain! Several campers were already there but we got a good spot on the front row near the water but no one was rigging although there were several out doing what looked like slalom training. With the wind from the west, not the perfect direction here it was a job to pick a sail size but, in the end, as the rain stopped, I went for 7m on the F2 Ride 115lt 282. My aim today was to go for some big miles and hope to get a good hour as I find it a difficult place to break 30 knots:( Things started to go wrong as soon as I switched my GT-31(gps) and it said the battery was very low, so I quickly plugged it in to give it a quick boost. I was the first out from this end and was going to try for just over an hour, hoping the gps would last out? In the end I was out over two hours making the most of high water doing long runs from the OTC right over to the moored yachts at the far end of the harbour, in fact you could sail anywhere with a good depth everywhere! It was fun sailing alongside about 20 slalom sailors race training between two bouys with my old kit being only slightly slower and it was a real gybe feast, hardly dropping one the whole session:) I came ashore after covering 40 n/miles for lunch with Mag who had been for a long walk to a shop and then back along the disused railway line, charging my gps while I had lunch. It was then out for another two hours cut a little short when one of my harness lines broke but it gave me a chance to have a chat with Portland local Norman Petty, it was great to catch up, in fact he had parked next to us:) The harbour was getting busy now with kitesurfers who mainly stayed close to the bank by the carpark doing some cool jumps, there were loads of windsurfers including freeriders and full on slalom sailors on some pretty impressive kit, plus foilers both with kite and sail and those dodgy looking kite things you use on a large foil board, don’t really see the point but each to his own! I think I was up to 75 n/miles now on the gps so things were going well but I still couldn’t get past 28 knots, I tried sailing in the really flat water close to the shore but the wind was particularly patchy here and I had more fun doing long mile runs in the rougher water. With my harness line replaced I headed out again trying to get to 100 N/miles. I think the secret of getting good speeds in this direction is to sail close to the shore from OTC and as you approach the other end hope you get a gust and bear off into the choppy water. I am well used to this kind of challenge and have managed 36 knots doing the very same at Point Clear but it just didn’t go right for me today as far as speed went and I was given a real lesson from all the locals today when I checked the gps site later in the evening! Still after at least another hour on the water I passed the 100 n/m mark just as the wind dropped and I had two slow wobblily beats back to the van. So, after checking my gps I had done a session best 104 n/m that’s 193 km or 120 miles no wonder I was officially very knackered having been sailing for 6.5 hours, a disappointing top speed but I did spend a lot of time in the windier but rougher water doing long runs. After well deserved cuppa, wash and pack the kit up we drove up the hill towards Portland Bill and parked up just past the Olympic rings where all the campers go now to stop overnight but we parked away from the crowds in a nice spot looking back Lulworth way. Then my disappointment came after I checked on Mags mobile what speeds had been posted today, Mark Newman was flying with a 34 knot average using the same sail size as me, so at least I got something right! I then decided to turn on the laptop to see how I got out and discovered my gps had failed to record most of the first two hours when I was at my freshest and probably got my fastest hour too, it cost me a better average to I suspect:( Sadly my old GT-31 is not working 100% so time to look into replacing it, after having to send back three faulty crappy GW-60 watches, they are next to useless it is a job to know what to get. A Belgium is making a Motion but that is being updated as I write and you can’t get a GT-31 for love nor money! So, if anyone has a GT-31 gathering dust in a draw at home please let me know as I wouldn’t go out on the water without a gps! Hopefully some more wind down this way on Wed/Thurs as I can go for another hour and hope to break 30 knots too:)

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