Who was out this weekend?.....

Crewed for a friend in his Flying Fifteen

17kts gusting 25 - absolutely perfect

Won the first race by about 6 minutes over the hour and were around 2 minutes ahead in the second when we snapped a twinning line fitting and sheared the rudder keyway after getting hit by a huge gust.

Helm is smiling though as he is off to the europeans at the end of next week and has a boat that is flying

Same, I ditched the boat and went windsurfing all week. Down on the coast it was blowing a constant 18knts and huge waves (wind against tide) and we were all overpowered on 4.0m sails and 75L boards!!

You better get some small kit soon Mike! All the forcasts are calling for a very windy week !

On Friday, I bought myself a new toy - a sit-on-top sea kayak, a 9ft long purple and white plastic thing that can be used when there's no wind, or too much. I got both extremes this weekend.

When I tried it out for the first time on Friday night, there wasn't a breath of wind, the sea was mirror calm and paddling was a doddle. Add a warm sunny evening after a drizzly day, a good pint of beer and a lovely dinner and it's a perfect recipe.

On Sunday, things got spiced up a bit with a steady force 6 gusting 8, waves and tide taking me to interesting but not-quite-planned places. Powering through the surf, I was just about to take a breather when another wave comes crashing towards me, and another, and another... Tiring to get out but so much fun to come back to the beach, catching a wave and surfing it, half of the boat out of the water, seeing the beach come very close very fast! I'm glad it's made out of plastic

Can't wait to take it out again. Perhaps next time, I'll feel a bit more in control.