Just back from a BRILLIANT morning's sailing! Winds 20-26 knots from the west. Club racing cancelled all along the shore (7 clubs). Just a bunch of windsurfers and kitesurfers out playing.

I suggested to Anne that we go anyway.....

Not once did it occur to me that it wasn't sailable. Anne may have had misgivings but she went with it anyway. We'd been out less than 5 minutes and we put the kite up YeeHah! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

30 seconds later and Anne's trying to say that she wants to go back in - but she can't get the words out because every time she opens her mouth it fills with seawater!!! I shout to her to stick with it, it'll be fine! We 3-sail broad reach from Leigh, out into the shipping channel - boy! the waves get really big out there! About a couple of miles out I think it'd be wise to gybe over back towards the Essex shore and we continue our 3-sail sleigh ride with me on the wire and Anne sitting in by the rear beam. We blast past Southend Pierhead doing some utterly stupid speed (I wish I'd had my GPS with me)and on towards Thorpe Bay and a heavily reefed cruiser on its way out to sea. Just as we scream past the cruiser, I hear the sound of a high speed outboard (or two) - It's the Inshore Lifeboat! I know the coxwain and when he sees who it is I get a thumbs up and a wave. They stay with us for another half mile or so and then I decide it's time to go back uphill. Anne moves in and snuffs the kite - perfectly! It feels so great when things work properly, that kite was away in less than 5 secs. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

We turn and twin wire back upwind, our friends in the RNLI ILB carry on but 10 minutes later they're back and pacing us to leeward. After 20 mins or so of blasting along beside us, the ILB heads off toward Kent with a cheery wave. We carry on upwind and then tack off and out to the shipping channel and some real 'wave action'. By now Anne has really settled into it and seems to be enjoying herself. We're powering upwind with the top 3 battens of the main inside out and the 4th dead flat. The top of the mast is clearly flicking to leeward every time the rig loads up and the boat is settled and fast with the windward hull a foot or so off the water.

Now we're out into the bigger waves and there are some big holes out here, some waves we launch cleanly off, others we just drop heavily into the hole the other side. Anne's starting to get a little concerned again. Time to tack for the Essex coast again. A clean tack and straight out on the wire the other side, Anne takes a little longer to get sorted and join me. I've overstood our club racks so we crack off a few points and the speed goes ballistic! The whole mainsail is pulling now and I drop the traveller about a foot. Anne gives me an 'I'm OK' smile.
Now we're closing on an area where the windsurfers are playing - I'm sorry, but I just can't resist. We bear off onto a screaming reach and chase down the first couple of windsurfers, we go past one as if he was standing still but the second one is every bit as fast as us! As we close rapidly on the shore two other windsurfers duck gybe round to join us - we now have 3 windsurfers and an F16 blasting along in close formation, what a buzz! We draw a lot more than these guys so I'm forced to harden up out of there and tack away. We're now less than half a mile from the club so two quick beats and we're back at the slipway. We're happy, elated and .... exhausted. There's no one around and the club's all locked up. No one to share our excitement with.... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Anne summed it up - "I wasn't sure at first, not with racing cancelled and so on, but I wouldn't have missed that for anything!" Amen to that. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />