Rain, Wind, Ice, Sun and Aliens
Ever since they started making windsurfing equipment simple with plastic clips and easy pulley systems, our ability to tie things together has diminished.
At 4:30am on Friday, Malcolm picked me up from my house with all my windsurfing and camping gear, to go sailing at Sterkfontein Dam for the weekend. Being a long-weekend (Freedom Day) the roads were packed with cars, trailers, caravans and to make it worse, raining quite heavily. After the first omen we should have just turned around and gone home but being Bronkhorstspruit windsurfers, not much can deter us from the promise of wind(even 8 hours in the blazing sun without a leaf moving). A car zoomed up behind us and although we were travelling at the speed limit, flashed their headlights for us to get out the way. Malcolm grudgingly moved into the other lane, showing the other driver that they could pass with a one-fingered hand-signal. It turned out to be a police car, thankfully they drove on.
At the first toll gate the queue was about 3km long and we waited for about 30 minutes to get through but the second toll gate was much shorter. After the toll we got out to check the windsurfing gear only to find that my 6.6sqm Ezzy sail had, in the spirit of Freedom Day, liberated itself from the trailer and was somewhere at the side of the road in the last 200km. Malcolm took responsibility for the disaster, respect dude! After phoning a Pieter and Phillip on the road behind us to keep an eye out for it we continued, arriving at Sterkies at about 8:30am
After pitching tents and waiting for the other windsurfers to arrive, we headed down to the water. Donovan was already there and had sailed a little early in the morning, but now the wind was already at 30 knots with only the kiters and windsurfers with small gear on the water.
By late in the afternoon it had calmed enough for us to have a go but it was still too much. Only Phillip had the right gear and we took turns on that for a short while.
The wind peaked at about 36 knots on Friday but calmed down in the evening, good food and Jack Daniels aplenty.
It was quite chilly on Saturday morning but we got up early and were on the water by about 7:30am, as it turns out this was a smart move because the wind later in the day was 30+ knots again. Nice early morning blasting.
The rest of the day spent on the bank waiting for the wind to drop. Another Bronkies windsurfer, Johan joined us after being blown around on his big board. Donovan spent most of the day in his board bag to stay out of the chilly wind. Malcolm kindly replaced my lost Ezzy with a 6.7 Sabre that he bought from Joluka, what a sweet sail, even though it doesn't have cams :-P. Late afternoon got very gusty and it was concluded that I was the main cause of too much wind at Sterkies because every time I got on the water the wind would crank up another 5 knots. We had quite a lot of gybing practice in the small bay out of the big swell.
Saturday night was freezing and most of us slept in our board bags. We awoke in the morning to -2 degrees. It had rained a little in the night so there was ice everywhere and the zips on my tent were frozen solid. 
What we found next was very reminiscent of crop-circles and Gonzo finding messages in his breakfast cereal. Written spookily in the frost on Malcolm's board and Phillip's car was the following message:
We suspect it was a hoax because Julian didn't even come with us for the weekend.
After the 30+ knots of the preceding days, Sunday was almost completely windless in the morning, but we did get some sailing with 9sqm sails in the afternoon. So long Sterkies, 'til next time.
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