Super cruisy session before the afternoon squall. Some holes but flying most of the time.

1 categories

Coodanup, WA, AU.  A nice pile of Pinnas already rigged and a couple of new faces.  Everyone was rigging small so copied them as indications were the front would be fairly brutal...this was a mistake as struggled to get going much of the time except in the stronger gusts...then the front came in and was one of the more epic unsailable whiteouts...then the wind dropped dead.    Almost managed to sail out the outlet but the current was coming in the other direction and about 5m from solid land started going backwards so had a few meter of the infinite depth mud to get through.  iSonic 97, 5.8 KA Koncept, FF22

1 categories

Coodanup, WA, AU

1st sail in 8 weeks so happy to get wet again. walked into the pond to see Scott and boz getting some nice runs and hearing Scott getting a 42peak and 40+2sec was great to hear. Got a few runs and got onto a 40kt white out squal but span out at 39.15knots. got back for attempt 2 and the wind dropped to 5-10knots so walked out of the pond with Boz, Ant and Richo. Flex was able to just sail out which was fortunate as the walk was slow in the mud. Falcon 56 evo 5.8 27wp

4 categories

Boundary Island, Peel Estuary, WA, Au    

Great catch up with the team and good to see scott and have a chat in the mud.. Wind came in the strongest with the rain and total white out made it to hard for a good run,,,so nice to finally taist some real power. 5.8 SCR,53 Patrick,25 ws.

4 categories

Boundary Island, Peel Estuary, WA, AU

Great to catch up with a bunch of Pinnaroos at Coodanup. Boz and I decided to walk over to the pond with about a 5 knot N blowing and then trudged over the mud bank into the pond. I switched on the GPS at that point and the wind booted in straight away. After quizzing Boz on the best direction we made our way to the top of the run. Wind was looking good so set off trying to line up against the weed bank and then thought 'stuff it' I'll just bear off into the middle of the pond and had what I think was the fastest run but of course the GPS was still hunting for satellites! Returned to the top of the run and repeated and got the 40 - super stoked. There wasn't enough wind after that to build a good 5 x 10 unfortunately. I was heading back upwind when the big squall hit and got slammed - then the wind totally died and everyone walked or drifted back to the foreshore.

AV 62, SV M4 6.2, Tribal WS 27

Melville iS111 6.2K 24FF then 36 CF

My fingers have finally thawed out enough to type...

I had planned to join the crew at Mandurah this afternoon but when 15 - 18kn NNE was showing for Melville this morning, with sunshine and relative warmth, I thought that seemed like a good option. I was wrong. NNE should get in to Melville but it was light and gusty and I gave up after a few runs. It was pleasant enough standing around chatting in the sunshine, but after an hour or so I decided to pack up and head to Coodanup. I had almost derigged when the wind picked up - I only had the downhaul to let off and the mast to take out... but I was still in wetsuit, and the sail and board were on the grass  so I rerigged and set out again. The wind was very up and down and one down dumped me into the water in the deep with not enough wind to waterstart, and too much swell to uphaul. I had to body drag slowly into standing depth water, then I set off again. I timed it badly and turned at the other side just as the squall really hit. I accelerated really quickly and was running down the swell lines when I ended up in the water. Not sure what happened there... I was standing in waist deep water for a while wondering whether to wait for a lull, wait for the squall to pass, or go for it, but knowing how the wind can swing and cut out after a squall, and being on the other side, I thought I had better grit my teeth and go for it. This time I headed up wind to wash off speed for a bit more control, and it was rather an exciting ride upwind over some very big rollers on a big board with a 6.2 m sail in 20 - 25 kn.  Luckily the fin held on. I made it almost to to the other side before I was dumped in and I allowed the rollers to wash me in the rest of the way. There was a short walk of shame and then after that the wind dropped out again, so it was home to a hot coffee and a hot shower.

I feel like I have had a good workout, but not much to show for it in terms of numbers.

first session 

14.802 9.584 1.373 7.040 5.173 2.556

second session

24.269 22.311 3.455 11.597 11.670 6.398