Cold and rainy day at Sandstone today, Adam shamed me into leaving a comfortable, warm house and joining himself, Brad and Tony for a sail. It was quite windy and extremely rough water on the top of the tide. The waves were breaking up onto the grass at first so I went 6.5 and had a quick go on the little BIC Blast. I soon discovered that there were heaps of holes in the wind and the Blast was no good for that so grabbed the Magic Ride and had a bit of fun. Very challenging conditions with the wind a bit up and down and gusty plus very rough water that calmed down heaps as the tide dropped. I hit a lull in the wind and called it a day and experienced hell by packing up in the rain which I hate with a passion, the other guys stayed on for a bit and got the smoother conditions on the last of the tide. Next few days look pretty good but the alternator in the cruiser gave up the ghost again on the way home after I thought it would stay alive a bit longer so I'm grounded for a day or two now.

Loving it in Tassie

That water colour is stunning Pete, how's the temperature?

Looking good Pete.

Some might not get the reference, but it has to be said.
A nut in front of "the Nut"

Enjoy the rest of the trip.

Yes, it looked like you got a few nice runs in Jeff, it was good to see you looking comfortable. You used the right gear and you even satisfied three, not previously satisfied, performance indicators for a Thursday:
1. You did one change of direction without falling into the water, I saw that gybe and even pointed it out to the boys, it looked pretty good
2. You didn't decide to walk to Beachmere and spark a land, water and air search involving the authorities
3. When you got excited and went downwind into the rocks and made us all cringe and say "here we go again" you slowed down and slogged your way back out of trouble




Another lovely afternoon sail for the rest of us, we got there around lunchtime to 20-25 knots of mayhem that soon dissappeared and then after an hour or so it snuck back up to 15 so we got underway again. Beautiful weather, nice water and good company, happy days

Nice report there Pete, you guys are having a cracking good Tassie getaway.

Very pleasant day at Sandstone today with Adam and Denis plus Bertis, Shaun and Mick with their kites. The day was topped off nicely with Shaun the kiter handing out CC and Dry cans from the back of the ute when we were packing up. Very light winds to start off and I still couldn't convince Adam to use his 9m race sail so he stuck with the 8.2 and his trusty old GO whilst I jumped on my windSUP with a 6.5 as I don't have a big enough fin to use my 9m with my new old GO yet. Denis came out a little later. Great fun and ridiculously clean water, did a quick board swap with Adam for a couple of runs once he started planing more. The wind came up slightly as we ran out of water and handed it over to the kiters. Looks like a few nice days coming up with good tides for Sandstone

plywoodboy said..
Where tomorrow? Don't want to drive to Olden Beach so is Sandstone going to be ok at high tide in 25 SE?

Yep we are all lining up for an early start. Probably 10 onwards so we can catch flat water as tide comes in

look forward to see you

155 litres around 2010 model, Adam's is 155 as well and an earlier model. His planes well in 12kn with 104kg of me on it, a 56cm fin and 8.2 cammed sail, it's amazingly good and way cheaper than a SLW. I'm still trying to track down a cheap fin for mine but will use it with a 9m NCX.

Big couple of days at sandstone



All the usual players

David and Johnathon visited from RQ team Windsurf for some sandstone magic on Wednesday.

congrats to mark- 20knts and not in the straps yet

great to watch the boys going for Pbs in the gusty winds

Adam did a cracking planing gybe

a little too extreme today for me - had a few runs but the adrenalin pot was soon empty - found the oyster beds again... got to get a red flag on the warning posts


Pads pulled on his ugg boots and heated up his milo and gave today a miss

I see I'm relegated to fifth position in the rankings..the bloody young upstarts...my last three sessions were so crap I didn't even bother posting. Some big winds heading this way in the next few days so who knows what will happen. Sunny and calm here in Devonport today so we went rubbernecking

Looking good for Bongaree Tuesday. Low tide @2:15. Low forming off the Northern NSW coast.
Yay!!! Nice long runs in some flat water, and some swell in the middle.

Dags,thursday at GB. Military jetty launch. 7.5m lion F1 RB. 18-25 ESE. Cranking long runs Bells Ck north to 6kt zone. About 3km of flat full speed action.


Launch near X.

Yeah, like Dag's said, that'd be fun in an easterly. Probably a bit less gusty than an easterly down our end of the passage.

Hey Dag's if there's wind early on Tuesday I'm going to sail at Sandstone, but if it doesn't come through till later I'll come over to South Esplanade and join you.

Hi Ballast, in Ese theres a bit of windshadow infront of powerboat club. But otherwise good consistent strength throughout.