Lost Fin Freestyle
I went windsurfing at Ricketts Point again yesterday, this time in a SW wind so I was launching from the other side of the point. The wind was somewhere between 25kts to 30kts and chop bigger than any I've sailed up to now (I'm guessing about 1.5m), adding to that the half dozen poles and bouys in the water indicating where the rocks are, made for a pretty scary ride.
After getting the explanation of what the bouys and poles are and where the rocks are, I basically got the idea that there are rocks *everywhere* except between two of the poles. So the first attempted launch ended after about 10m as I discovered the boom too high, the gust too weak and my booties not fitting in the footstraps (I'd been sailing without booties for a bit and had adjusted the straps), turned around and went back to the beach for some tweaking.
The second attempt was a little better as I planed away from the beach, completely missed the poles and bouys area I was aiming for but luckily didn't hit any rocks because it was high tide. Coming back in I wiped off the top of a wave as I nervously tried to weave though the poles and had to waterstart smack in the middle of all the poles and bouys. Things improved after that and soon I was whizzing in and out, making slight rig adjustments.
Somewhere along the line my fin came loose and I lost it somewhere near the beach. The result of that was a 360 degree rotation of the board, followed by a faceplant right near the beach, fin gone, perhaps someone will find it at low tide. I'm pretty glad it happened near the beach, otherwise it could have been an ugly swim back.
Labels: Melbourne, Windsurfing
