The day after……… Coming to grips with it, what a fantastic day it was. Huge amount of support from friends and family, I could not have done it without them.
At 01.30 the alarm went off and together with my wingman Pepijn Luke, my mother and sister we drove to Zonnemaire. At 03.00 the boat went in the water and I rigged three sets. 04.50 it was light enough to start and I straight away had a feeling of deja vu from last year. It was exactly one year and one day ago that I started my first attempt at the Veerse lake and just like then the first couple of hours were filled with rain showers and gusty winds from a far from ideal direction. As I was going for a 24 hour attempt I know you have to take lesser conditions aswell in the day Does a perfect 24 hour exsist?
After the first three hours the rain showers became less frequent and the wind veered to the expected west south west direction. In the stand by boat which was at anchor at the starting point, was the supply of water and food that I used during the day. This meant I did not have to go back to the shore for replenishments.
During the course of the day it picked up to a steady force 7 at around 16.00. Conditions were great and my buddies Pim Kraan and Pepijn Luke joined me to get some kilometers on the GPS. The avarege speeds was 34 km/hr including breaks. Cruising speeds were 45-60 kilometers per hour with peak speeds of 71 km/hr.
At 15.00 it was time for the first proper break and I came ashore for pasta and a rest. So many friends and family were there to support me, it felt great.
Local media came for an interview and they made awesome footage that made the national news the next day. Good promotion for a fantastic sport.
At around 21.15 I passed the bench mark of 550 kilometer and had another 7.5 hours to complete the 24 hour record session
At this point my sisters her boyfriend Sjoerd together with Lars and Pepijn started to rig the lights on all the objects on the lake for the night time surf session. Around 23.00 I surfed 600 kilometers and changed into my winter wetsuit after another carb loading.
At around midnight the wind shifted to a more westerly direction and new rain showers made the wind come a go. The challenge of the night time sailing was trying to stay planing. In the dark you don’t see the wind gusts or luls; this was extremely draining. At 02.00 the winds were light and my body and mind, exhaused from the mamoth session, called it a day.
A satisfying 630 kilometers on both GPsunits. This will be verified by the time keepers of GPS speedsurfing and after a deduction of a possible GPS error margin I expect to get and number of around 615 kilometer.
A more detailed report is in the making, as well a short movie of the preparation and day itself.
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