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Places
we have sailed...
Halifax
Sailing Club, Rhosneigr, Brandon Bay, Exmouth Lagoon
Please
click
on the thumbnail to see each photograph and on your browsers 'back'
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Rhosneigr |
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 Autumn
2003: North West
Wales - nice beach, nice people - kite-surfers and windsurfers in harmony
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However,
it's worth remembering that it can be a long walk to the water when the tide
goes out
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July2004: Big
swell, decent wind, buzzing my brother who was body-boarding |
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Brandon Bay |
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After
travelling from Yorkshire down the M1, M5 and M50 we finally arrived in
Swansea and after some junk food with meat filled vegetarian salads we
collected our tickets and joined the queue for the ferry. Be careful about
loading boards on the roof of your vehicle because they take the full
loaded height to set the price, alternatively do it, smile, be nice and
pay less. We dumped our stuff in our ''cabin'', watched the port of
Swansea disappear and had a drink in the bar. I was worried about
the ferry doing a Titanic but the sea was flat all the way to Cork, where
we arrived at 7.00 in the morning. It took 2 hours to get to Brandon bay
and my first lesson was at 2.00.
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On no-wind days I practiced my
driving skills.
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 The walks were great
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Scraggane Bay is a pretty safe place to sail and on day one I learned to
''jump'' tack and do the ''archery'' jibe, whilst getting a feel for the
place. It was good to get to Spillanes bar at the end of the day and
recharge my batteries with some great pub food, which fuelled our walk
around the bays. |
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View over Brandon Bay and out
towards the Atlantic
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On one of the big wind days I was
sailing so fast that Simon couldn't keep up with me in the safety boat and
this was with a 3.5 metre Dino sail.
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 My first instructor
of the week was Kevin, but actually Simon taught me the most during the
week. The big things I learned were 1. keep the board flat, 2. keep back
foot over centre of board, 3. Pump to plane faster, 4. backwind sailing
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Back home on the
ferry with the hard-core wave sailors |
The evening light was always
stunning - except when it rained of course...
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 Jamie
Knox's famous trailers full of kit - I didn't need to rig my own sail -
heaven!. They have a great shop where I dragged my dad to buy me lots of
necessary kit. The Jamie Knox Lodge where we stayed has about 10 rooms and
the room we had was where the last people to use it were the Moreno twins
- it's a really great place - the wooden floors are impressive. |
| Mark
Grainger and Jamie Knox know everything there is to know about windsurfing
and surfing in Brandon Bay. Nothing is too much trouble, the breakfasts
are awesome and if you love the water there is always something to do.
www.jamieknox.com |
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