OHOPE BEACH SAND SAILORS
Friday 22nd September 2006
Good morning Kiwis
Its 2am, it is hot in relation to Nz temperatures and I am sitting outside my room in the Hippotel corridor on the 2nd floor typing you this note at 2am in the morning, 3pm New Zealand time?.
Yesterday was a very eventful day for me. I was woken by my room mate Alby, as I had over slept and it was now breakfast time. Down in the dinning room we meet up with some more local sailors. The discussions were all in French and the little I have been able to learn in the last six weeks is no match for their vocabulary and the speed they are speaking. Occasionally a word or two is understood by not enough always to follow what they are talking about.
Off to the yacht club and I started pulling apart the class 5 that I have been given by Exzaber to use. I removed the two back tires and brought from Jean Philippe two new 26’’ tires and tubes which I will bring back after this regatta. They have a slick 26” mould over here and the tires made ready to use for land yachts only. No grinding! Next I shot up to the bike shop I found last night. With some difficulty I was able to make myself understood enough and hired a bike for the week and purchase a new 16” knobble front tire. Back at the beach it was rain hard and everyone got soaked working on their yachts. The tide was now in (12o’clock) and the planned was to sail after 2pm.
We were taken out to lunch at a local Pizzeria and treated to a very large feed. I was then taken to a nearby town called Berek, 10km east and taken into a version of our Mitre10 hardware store to pick up supplies. Inside I purchased a new grinder and extension cord, tape, saw blades, wrench, nut and bolts. Back at the yacht club the wind was starting to blow again as I set about grinding all the tread off my knobble tire. The plan was to hit the beach at 4pm for my first sailing session.
We rolled the yachts down the one small entry / exit onto the beach. The surface is very different to what we are use to. I sailed down the concrete ramp and down towards the water. The yacht powered up beautiful and with the windward wheel a foot off the ground as I did a power arc power off downwind. A gibe and power slide just before some moon holes and back onto a tack. The leeward wheel bit hard, softer sand than expected and with me not being ready for this I flipped the stationary yacht over and stepped out. What a great start, capsized within the first 30 seconds of being on the beach. No safety belt s in any of the yachts, not a rule here.
I hope this the first and last time I do this, this week ;)
I sailed with Alby for the next two hours up and down the beach. There is plenty of areas to sail however no big areas to stretch your legs and get some good speed on. The Islands of smooth area tend to become very soft in the middle which means either you try to power sailing through them or sail up the edges between moon country and the soft sand. I think the Class 3’s with the smoothies will sail over the soft areas and go from moon to moon area while the Class 5’s will sail up the edges of the moon countries. (only 20meters wide of sailable area)
After two hours of flying and crashing through rivers and holes my body was starting to feel the signs that it had been beaten up and that I had enough enjoyment for one day. I am going to have some bruises. We all packed up and grouped together before all heading back to the Hippotell for a bath and then to bed at 11pm.
Ok. Better sign off and get a couple more hours sleep. We have to be at the yacht club by 8am so breakfast at 7am downstairs. Today should be interesting. I will balance one wheel that is way out and jumping off the beach. Realign the wheels after pulling them way out of alignment after the rough session on the beach yesterday. Later I will track my boat speed against some of the locals in this mornings first official training session.
