Typical. Easter is a double bank holiday weekend, I have four days off, it should be the height of the spring run of cod and the weather forecast is atrocious. Not only that but my wife is insisting I do some decorating and I offered to look after a friend’s children while they packed for a trip. The latter put paid to the idea of an early launch which may or may not have entailed fishing, surfing, touring or sailing...
A walk to the beach in the morning allowed me to feel a bit better – it was a force 5 gusting 6 and, being from the south east, unfishable. The kite surfers were out and a couple of optimistic (but rubbish) boardies were too. I needed to get wet, was going to get wet and just needed to come up with a good plan.
This plan set itself up. Around 13:30 I would be returning the children to Pakefield, a mile south of my place. With High water around 12:30 this would mean the current would have turned by then and so wind, swell and current would be more or less aligned...an ideal opportunity to test my newly modified sail (it’s yellow now) in a strong wind. My wife was surprisingly agreeable to this as I explained it’d only take an hour in total.
The modification was a bit more than replacing the sheet of my Pacific Action sail with yellow material. I’d not used my sail much in the last couple of years as I’d sold the smaller one (1.5 metre) and bought the biggest one (2.2 metre). The latter was a bit overpowered above a force 3 and encroached a bit on the cockpit. It took me this long to realise that one of the three poles on each side could be removed to give me a smaller sail option...and so with a tenner spent on yellow ripstop and my mum persuaded to get her sewing machine out my Pacific Action was given a new lease of life and was duly fitted to my Scupper Pro. It wasn’t the first trip with it fitted to be fair, but the first proper go with it.
A few pics as I was asked for some
Blustery was the word that sprang to mind as i got set up on the clifftop. Kitesurfers and windsurfers were out, the sea was churned up and my confidence took a dip. No matter, I just attached my towline as a leash ;D I clipped the thigh straps in, attached the battery for my Humminbird unit, clipped on my paddle and wandered into the water, paddling out through a closely-spaced 3-4ft shore break that swamped me a couple of times and nearly flipped me once out and fiddling with things. Hmm, good choice of conditions for testing ;D
Up went the sail, paddle across my lap, and I headed north. I was holding a parrel bead on each end of the rigging lines and with the port one pulled further back I set the sail at a slight angle and set my course for my aiming point – I had to go around the pier three-quarters of a mile away.
I made good headway up, down and sideways and reached the pier rather sooner than normal. I was hitting speeds of 6mph (averaging 4.6 over the whole trip, filming for a fair bit of it) and finally, after about seven minutes, reached the point where I had to turn in for the beach. This I did by bringing the port side of the sail down at more of an angle and the boat responded as hoped and took me in. I reached the (even) rougher water where the waves were starting to break properly as it shallowed out (I’d had white horses and breakers all the way) and furled the sail. I’d have to paddle onto the beach. This I duly did, picking the first wave up a hundred yards out and surfing most of the way in before picking up a smaller one that turned me side on and was too weak to support me leaning on it. I dumped unceremoniously twenty yards out ;D
I trolleyed the kayak back to the house and later walked back up to Pakefield to fetch the car. My nine minutes on the water had used up about an hour and a half of my day, not good time management...but it was certainly worth it – I had a blast!
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