When I'm not
doing my art my greatest passion is sailboarding. I started sailboarding back
in 1984 and when I was younger and really fit used to sail in the surf. Now I
just sail on the lakes as I don't think I would handle getting pummelled by
waves.
I had an "interesting
sail" last night. I rigged up and
set out and decided I'd go for a jump when I saw a suitable wave about 100m
out. I launched off the ramp and then had a massive stack with whiplash. Not
good. I've had a few bad whiplash stacks lately as I've been trying to improve
my jumping and been making mistakes learning.
A bit like this except the rig kept going and I wasn't hooked in.
Anyway I surfaced and saw my board
disappearing downwind at a great rate of knots
and my rig in the water next to me. I hadn't checked they were put together
securely and they had popped apart midair. Watchers later told me it was quite
spectacular as the rig started to go up and then kept going while I stacked..
I swam flatout for about 100' trying to catch
the board but it was facing down the waves and flying..grr.I went back to get
my rig which was semi submerged and in the same spot.
Another sailor went flying past and I waved
and yelled and pointed at my boards that was rapidly disappearing into the distance.
He didn't see me on the way out but on the way back he did but then promptly
fell in and had issues of his own restarting.
He
eventually got going again and got into shore and flagged down a speedboat that
was being launched at the ramp. The people on the boat kindly gave the him a
lift and they went looking for my board. They came back a while later and said
it had drifter / sailed about 5kms ! It was also hard to find as it's blue ( on
blue water).
Meanwhile I started dragging my heavy 'sea
anchor ' of a rig into shore. It took me about 3/4hr of swimming. Lucky it
happened only 100m out as I usually sail c 6kms from the point over to the
other side!
Anyway all
turned out well - no damage to anyone and I provided some amusement. I noticed
when I took my prescription sunnies off that I was missing a lens..Argh!! Lucky
for me it had just dropped out onto the ground and not fallen out in the lake!
I'll have to get them fixed today.
I rigged smaller as the wind had come in and
went out again and the wind died. I can't stand on the board and pull the sail
out of the water as its small and would sink. I have to waterstart which means
lie on my back in the water and push the sail up into the air so the wind fills the sail and pull me up onto the board.
If there isn't enough wind you are stuck and have to swim in.. Luckily I
finally got going but decided enough was enough.. Glad I don't have days like that very often!
Better times are more like this!
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