5 categories

Great fun light wind sail at Fangy's, accompanied by Evets Fangy and Yoyo.

Used, 6.6, 53 and 28cm 45 deg rebox.

2 categories

Warning: this post has been manufactured on an assembly line that may contain traces of nuts(mine) and possibly factual information. But once again...probably not.

Played host with the least today over at Fangy's. I had mentally adjusted to having the company of Decrepit for the afternoon but when Evets and Yoyo turned up as well, there was only one thing for it. I told them to go up the western end of the run and then I buggered off 8 kms away over to Boggy Bay. My plan was going well, with Boggy Bay looking the goods for those armed with a Delta - as it was still a bit shallow. I was trying out my new KaKoncept 7.5, so I did stop and make a few adjustments in the sandy shallows. At that point I noticed a little patch of red fur floating by. I had heard on the muppet nasty grapevine that Elmo was wearing a Brazilian these days so I immediately jumped to the worst conclusion - Elmo pubes in the water!!! Or it could have been a normal early season weedberg as I am massively colour blind. Still I did not want to take the chance. Time for a lightning decision for which I am generally not famous for. Hang here with the Muppet pubes and possibly their owner, or split back to Fangyville.

Yep you guessed it, no sane man swims with the muppet curlies so I hi-tailed it back across to the safety of my side. This required I cross two boating channels. Now as you know, I am a bit of a waif in build so I was wearing my demented Wiggle outfit to increase my visibility - that is the bright yellow fleecy and I thought this plus 7.5m of yellow sail would make me visible to the powerboat fraternity. It does not. So for the first time ever I had to call 'water' not once but twice on my trip back across. To be fair the sun was relatively high in the sky, the water state mild and visbilty down to 15 kms at times, soit was obviously trying conditions for those skippers charging home with a skinful of Sunday beer.(yes just a tad of sarcasm again).

I  got back to my patch to find everyone had cleared off. Result! So now back to the normal state of affairs of me and no mates, I started a couple of out and back runs. The water at Fangy's today was rougher that my last pair of sandpaper  jocks but unlike those I still managed a good time. No great speeds on offer but just a nice environment to start dialling in my new sail. I still have a few adjustments to make,but it was great to be out on the F2log  in breeze that would have previouslyhad me on the QEII. I started the day with my speed weed but I am afraid I might have become too used to sailing on a Delta as once i swapped over top my Delta18, I started feeling more comfortable. In any case I was wandering back down toward the wood steps when I spied that the bleeding parasites were all still here. Decepit was just packing up his Tartan rug picnic set and finishing his cuppa and no doubt Evets had just polished off a batch of scones and cream. Apparently they were concerned about were I had got to, so they had decidsed to come looking for me. Oddly when I didnt spring out of the picnic hamper neither managed to make the leap of logic that perhaps I wasnt there. And here was I thinking Kiters were thicker than your average railway sleeper.

Happily reconciled that I wasnt in the hamper, and mighty fine cup of tea that needed attention had been duly addressed the two of them kicked off the slippers and velvet dressing gowns, feigned enough concern followed by relief that I was indeed still in good shape and then they toddled off down the steps and got sailing again.

Yoyo had finished his latest art installation and stuck it to the base of his board and when I saw him he was either motionless or scooting, not really anything in between. Speaking of fins, if anyone else ever feels compelled to come and ruin my solitude remember two things. One, Fangy's is deepest 20 metres from the shore and then gets shallower as you walk out, there is no point in walking out to deeper water - it will be a long walk. Walk back in to get to the deeper water, get up and planning to clear the bank.

Secondly, even though you might have got a bargain on Gumtree, using bits off retired space shuttles for fins it is not going to end well if you do. People, its shallow, that means you have a limited amount of space between the bottom of your board and the real estate. Unfortunately my companions today had cleared this mental hurdle and deprived me of some entertainment.

My cultured upbringing forced me to go back out and attempt to be gracious host. At this point my GPS ran out of batteries, so the last two hours I have no data, but you can safely assume I sailed much, much further and much, much faster than either of the Evets or Decrep.( NOT !) That is even taking into account the last hour on the QEII as the wind had dropped a little and I had decided it was time for Jeeves to break out the G&T's and for me to slip into Sunday afternoon cruise mode. But alas I was struggling with those little umbrellas and in the end pulled up stumps to concentrate on getting the cocktails into my mouth rather than in my eye.  Jeeves did mention that he felt a little underwhelmed by the western suburbs mob out sailing before he went back to polishing the Merc. I had exhausted my good host capabilities so contented myself with playing around with the sail settings on the shore. Jeeves offered to slip into the mankini to brighten my mood whilst he was getting down with the soap suds on the bonnet, but given Elmo wasnt around I felt it would have been a wasted effort.

So I was thinking it was a pretty fine afternoon when Decrep tries to mount the stairs with board and rig. I have always left this to Jeeves and noticed that he has always delivered the items separately.I can now see why. First Decrep lightened my mood also by discovering that he was vertically challenged and not able to lift the rig high enough to cope with the swirling updraft and clear the railing on the steps. I probably should have done more to help, but why ruin a spectacle? Then as the sun sets Evets attempted to do the same and made a far worse fist of things . Damn my christian ethics, i was compelled to stroll over and offer my services. Unfortunately Evets had been on the water too long and the wind noise in his helmet must have concealed my rhetorical offer of help. What a reward for my effort though. Evets attempted to pile drive his board through the bridge and then attempt to dislocate a limb or two with a sail deciding to get a mind of its own at just the wrong time - as they always do. This cheered me no end.Oh despicable me.

3 categories

Fangy's, WA, AU JP54 RSRE V 26 pepe speed wed for first 30odd ks then Pepe speed weed 26cm at 48 deg.

 I had been watching the forecast all week wondering if I could get in a sail Sunday arvo. It did not look promising but the wind did perform. Sailing with Yoyo, decrepit and the good host Fangman it was a great afternoon on the water. With the sun shining, warm water and sufficient wind. Only hiccup was my emulation of a muppet as I tried to get my gear up the stairs. Thanks hugely to local strong man Fangy for helping me extricate first sail then board from the strange torture contraption (or maybe it is a siege engine?)

The outcome was a small bulge in my sail (second time on the water)and a small hole in my board (this only showed up when I cleaned it down to put in my car. Neither will affect performance fortunately. Maybe I will learn from this.

Kept going to achieve 100kms only to see less on Ka 72. Oh well.

edit: added distance ex GPSARPRO (thanks Decrepit for the assistance with this)