After that experience there is no way I'm going out on the sea until I have learnt how to handle my new board! So I legged it over to Pandora Pond for a practice while there was still some light left. The Pond is where you get all the beginning windsurfers, all the local lads and kids hanging out, and is perfectly flat! I still managed to sail like a complete arse, so far as I didn't take enough care rigging so the sail was like a flag. I fell off lots. It's very frustrating, like being back at square one again.

After about an hour of light wind sailing I seem to have got the hang of uphauling again. It's just about possible on a 110L board with a large sail with a fatty like me charging about on top of it! I prefer waterstarting in flat water! Anyway, I executed several tacks, nearly gybed, all with very little wind. Waves or chop really make life hard...

More practice required today. It's going to be great once I get the hang of it again!

I ought to detail the kit that I'm using:-

Fanatic Cross, 110L, length 264cm, width 60cm (2001)

Tushingham Max, 7.1m

Ezzy Wave 5.2m

Chinook boom

Neil Pryde mast, 460cm, IMCS 25, 95% carbon

Wipika harness (strictly speaking a kitesurfing harness, but hey...)

I also have a F2 Axxis 90L board, but that needs some slight repairs. I shall be learning to wave sail on this one when I get a bit better.

Good things:

I went out yesterday (1st March '03) to Clive estuary (will get some photos up here when I can persuade Emma to come with me) and had a stormer of a day. Arrived at about 5pm, the wind had dropped to 13 knots. Gordon (a kitesurfing friend) has made an anemometer from a large pole, the spinny thing and an ordinary cycle speedometer calibrated appropriately. Very clever. Anyway, I rigged my 7.1m sail and got on the water. I had a superb time, blasting like I have never known! My board is very stable at speed, a vast improvement over my Tiga that I learnt on. I had to avoid the logs (up to 15ft long) in the estuary which have been washed down the river in the rain we've had recently. Anyway, apart from getting to grips with blasting (in the harness and footstraps), the best bit was that I did my first ever gybe! I have reached a milestone in my sailing! Very pleased! Shame that there is no wind today...

Been out a few times recently. Just need to keep on practicing those gybes. The last but one time it was blowing like crazy. I struggled but had fun going very fast! Shan't be long now before I brave the Pacific again!

I have at last managed to persuade Emma to take a few photos of me sailing. I had rigged my smaller sail because it was blowing nicely when I arrived, but as soon as I set foot on the water the wind died.

This is my favourite sailing venue at the moment, Clive Estuary. The Ngararuro River meets the sea almost exactly between Napier and Hastings, at Clive, and has thoughtfully provided us windsurfers and kitesurfers with an extremely amenable location for sailing. It is tidal, but the water is not salty. The exit to sea is not very wide so there is not much chop except right in front of the river mouth (also an area to be avoided due to the current - I tried to put my foot down once and wondered why I couldn't stand up). After heavy rains the river becomes muddy so it is like sailing in a muddy puddle. If the river level is really high dead trees and so on can be found floating accross the lake. They aren't too good for your fin...

Clive Estuary is a much better venue than Pandora Pond, which is a lagoon very close to the centre of town. Although there are changing rooms and showers at Pandora, the wind is fickle (i.e. non-existent most of the time) and there are annoying sand bars meaning that it is best sailed 2 hrs either side of high tide.

I'm fed up - the clocks have gone back, so it now gets dark earlier. No more windsurfing after work for me now... Still, with the end of summer should come the winds!!