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Budgewoi Lake, NSW, AU, Buff Pt 10-16kts with the odd gust (Forecast was 30-40)

Falcon 79 and 5.4m 

Rigged for forecast and was tempted out by a good gust.

The five stages of a bad day at Budgie:

Denial - I cannot believe it's not windy

Anger - How can the forecasters get it so wrong!

Bargaining - Please, please just give me 2 mins of wind, so I can beat Sue!

Depression - I'm so miserable, I've spent the day cold and wet standing around in the mud.

Acceptance - Well it is what it is, can't complain got to catch up with friends, I wonder what tomorrows forecast is?

10-15kts WSW occ 15-18kt patch one decent 20kts plus gust Buff Pt Budgewoi Lake, NSW, AU level 0.2m

 5m M2 -70ltre patrick - 16cm tribal

 then 5.5m M2 - 80 iso and 16.5cm FF ( cutdown 22)

1st speed sail in ages. I'd gone off the idea of blasting into the shallows after my head plant at LG..This was a nice easy reintroduction..

 Rigged for the forecast rather than what was there so  too small. I also thoughgt I should get some practise on the 70ltre.

 Pity it was so shallow . I tried a few gybes and they felt good and would have been succeeded except I was left high and dry on the bottom after the rig flip..

Some nice  flatwater But too shallow for gybing. The alpha included being balanced on the bottom after the rig flip then hanging my weight off the boom as the board kangarood along for the exit. Lucky it didn't dig in and stop..

 I found it tiring stopping , turning the board at each end and having to pop the cams on the sail..

Persevered for a while with the smaller gear but only got 29.9kts and it wasn't powered up enough. Went in and rigged the 5.5m ( could have rigged the 6.6m but didn't want to risk it with the forecast).

 I got Fangy to make the cutdown 22 a few years ago.  It was an experiment to see if it would hold my 7m on the 90ltre board in 12-18kts.. it didn't spinout but I wasn't happy with it's upwind ability so it's been in mothballs.

I decided to see how it would go with the smaller kit.It's not as deep as the 16cm tribal but about the same area. It was great! Rocksolid in the chop. 

 It started sliding around and spinning out on the bearaways but when I checked the front wasn't pulled down enough and it was catching a weed mo. I had to stop at the end of each leg and clear it.

 I'll fix that issue next time. It has quite a curved edge and is great and doesn't catch any weed and sludge starting in the shin deep mud.

 The 2 sec runwas the only powered bearaway of the day and I ended up well powered out in the channel chop. I decided rather than try a gybe I'd go in and see if I could fix the fin gap. It was great being able to rely on the fin in the 2ft chop..

 Just Andrew & I . Matt arrived really late. Mark & Maree and others from Peely side.

 I wore my winter wettie but it wasn't too cold and it was lovely to have shallow water to stop and adjust things ..Another 10cm of water would be nice so you could link gybes..