went a long way today :)

I got home from a 2 hour bike ride and checked the forecast again, after deciding a few days beforehand that it would be a bit indulgent of me to go over to SP again so soon after the last trip. I was also thinking I should wait until my 42cm board was finished, and the new sails turned up so I could get some testing done. But I got an itch and decided on impulse to check flights. Before I knew it I'd sort of organised transport to and from the airport at either end, and booked some flights. Then I had to get my speed board from the factory which was locked because James from Nude was in hospital getting something fixed (!). I did some packing and got a bit of work on my old crusty laptop to do while I was there. The flights were really expensive on the day before the blow so I went a day early.
Matt picked me up from the airport and I spent the next day at his place working. It was a late flight and on his way out the door in the morning he forgot to give me the security key to get back in so I was locked in all day. No probs- work got done.
It blew pretty hard at times overnight, and the tide stayed in longer than expected the next morning since it was quite a high one. We got in and got the mission done. Wind was very Westerly, making it impossible to sail back to the launch area most of the time. It occasionally swung a little more to a favourable WSW direction.
There were plenty of people there to enjoy the conditions. There were a few interstate convoys- it had been a while since the forecast looked this good, but closer to the day the wind crept a bit too far back to the west. We made the most of it!
I wore 5kg of weight since there was a lot of walking, and I didnt want to be burnt out too quickly in case the wind swung more to the WSW. Later in the day this is what happened, but the tidal flow was quite severe resulting in some pretty solid standing waves plus the usual 30cm high following chop towards the end of the run. Next time I should have some more fitness to carry more weight. This will make a difference for sure.
The wind seemed to be a bit better earlier on in the day and my fastest runs were my first few. It was quite gusty and there were a few rain squalls coming through. On one of the squalls I launched from the opposite sand bar and sailed a long way towards the far dunes. My goggles were fogged up and covered in sand, and it was raining quite hard so I really couldnt see the chop. I decided to go by feel as long as I could make out the edge of the sandbar, and anyone in front of me. So I went for it. It was unreal. My board just mowed down the chop so I kept going. When the tidal standing waves got to a critical height and spacing I started to feel the board getting a bit unstable so I slowed down. When I got to the end of the run and saw the rolling chop breaking on the sand bar with standing wave coming back upwind I couldnt believe I made it that far at that speed.
As the tide raced in all too soon the wind angle started to improve. I tried sailing back to the launch area on one run since the angle looked good, and lost my back foot in a bullet gust, sending me crashing into the sail and breaking 2 battens. Oops. The tide was getting a bit close to the cars so time was running out so I did another couple of runs with the broken battens and still managed a 46kt peak. The angle was much better but the wind had dropped and the tidal flow was making the water rough.
We shared the run with a couple of kiters including Luke who hopped over from NZ- the optional state of Aus (when it suits). He lives closer to SP than I do. I guess he is one of the few guys that can say "it isnt such an easy place to go fast after all". Hope you enjoyed the trip though.
All up I'm pretty sure I got a PB on the 5x500m of 45.3kts. I did 13 runs total.