BurbleChaz

The rain held off, the gales subsided and the beach team had to resort to idiocy to keep the beach closed. On the dot of 0830 they found themselves surrounded by a restless crowd who were not happy to discover that the keys to the beach hut had been misplaced.

The catamaran briefing started while I tried to hide from the biting wind. Once the keys to the hut had been located, and the first cat sailors despatched towards their capsizes, the windsurfing briefing began.

I listened attentively, laughed at the jokes and tried to remember the important points. It seems that the ability to distinguish right from left may be a requirement. Oh dear.

Briefing completed, we set up our vast boards with tiny sails, and gave it a go. I was first off the beach. Ten metres out, the instructor suggested I try turning round. Tilt the rig forwards, and it starts to bear away. Cool. Shuffle gently round the board. Neat. Pull the rig back into the breeze. Heading for the beach. Spiffy. As the instructor turns his attention to the others, I try a few more turns. Basically, the board gybes as the rig tacks and the whole ensemble drifts to leeward.

I survived a few more turns, and a few gusts and made it back to the beach 100m to leeward of where I'd launched. As far as I can tell, windward perfomance is achieved by trudging through the shallows.

I repeated this performance a couple of times before the tide dropped too far. It was all starting to make sense, and I was getting some sort of control over direction. I was also having a blast. It's fun. I can't have been doing it right, though - I didn't fall in once. Tomorrow I will have a bigger sail.