Sorry Lawrence and Nuala I won't be able to make the Hillhead weekend and BBQ because I am away in Cornwall as are a few others. (The Christchurch two and Gaz and Caz). I hope you have a good day windsurfing and the BBQ goes well Clare.

ok Clare - forecast does not look that promising at Hillhead yet.......Hopefully you will get better wind down in deepest Cornwall, have a great weekend!

PS.......Not sure why, but Nuala is the one who signs us up for hosting, but it's always my name that ends up as the host on the events page!

PSS, ok, so I do know why my name is down as the host when Nu signed up for it - Andrew puts my name down so both Nuala & I can modify the event details as Nuala has 'jedi' rights to update website as she is on the commitee

Anyway, onto 'The Event' for this coming weekend.....

....wind forecast is looking a little bit more inspiring than I first feared from earlier in the week - yes the Windguru GFS forecast does not look great, but I find the WRF forecasts to be more accurate for this stretch of water....& they look better.

Late afternoon Saturday looks planable & maybe even Sunday late afternoon. Hillhead also has a tendancy to sometimes spring surprises on the wind strength anyway I've gone down there with a light forecast & only taken big kit only to have to rush home & fetch smaller kit as the actual wind on the beach has been MUCH stronger than forecast.

I'm guessing that we will turn up in 'The Big Blue' (Transit Van - LWB high roof metallic blue) midday/early afternoon Saturday......forecast looks like light rain Saturday morning anyway.

High tide is 2.30pm which is great......I might NOT find the sandbank with my long fin this weekend as I did last time I sailed here......some on the beach heard it ground out last time......pass the sandpaper please.

I am also writing 'do not strap GoPro camera onto nose of board' one Thousand lines before I go out at Hillhead again (having lost camera last time & wnet back at night at low tide & luckily found it washed up!).

Hope to see a few OM'ers on the water this weekend.

Duncan, if you read this, I got the message to take your kit to the beach, will see you at the beach or at ours if you turn up before we leave.

Hi Lawrence
There we have it Nuala is a Jedi! I knew it was something! The force must have been with you to find that camera though!

I would love to come, but I'm brick laying. Then replacing the lambda sensors on the car, which is a bit like turning a calf around and helping the birth, if all goes well that is! Hope your optimism with the wind turns out true. So take an 8 anyway!

Robert

.....got all my brick laying done during the winter months (didn't I Nuala? Doing your vegtable plot!).

Depending upon the car it should be relativley easy to change the lambda sensor......assuming you have reasonable access to it & it has not seized Good luck!

It is Saturday at 9.45am - Windguru WRF 9km Forecast still looks good for this afternoon & we are still planning on being there early afternoon. Rain has stopped too - inline with forecast!

we're unlikely to get down today as we are supposed to be watching Toy Story, but hope to get down tomorrow

.......Sunday Morning 9.49am - Windguru WRF forecasts don't look too encouraging - there may just be enough to plane in the 2pm-7pm window, but it looks like it will be largest kit required. We will probably go down during this window of opportunity.

Yesterday was a bit mixed. It started out as planing on largest kit, then the wind died & just as we were thinking of packing up & calling it a day at around 6 ish a strong SW'ly wind came from nowhere litterally within seconds. I was overpowered on my 10.3m & RRD x-fire, but made it back to shore ok. I tried Nu's old 8m Sailworks retro which Duncan had rigged, on my RRD FSW 95L but hated the 'feel' of this sail - center of effort was moving about all over the place, not the locked down stable feel of the good old tushinghams which I always set quite flat & floppy leeched, the Retro seems to set with alot more belly. Nu had nipped out with the van (& kit) to get the kids some tea from fish & chip shop. So I was 'stuck'. Others changed down. JohnG, Bill & Heather all seemed to have a good time with much smaller kit & it was a lovely evening & this part of the solent is quite beautiful with view across to the Isle of Wight where Cowes week has just started, so lots of sailing craft out & several of the big ocean cruisers leaving Southampton Docks & 'steaming' across the solent on the start of their journeys. Sadly, we had to leave a little earlier inorder to get BBQ started at ours, so theer was not really time for me to rig up a smaller sail & enjoy the fresh wind in a setting sun.

Hopefully today this mystry wind will re-appear between 2pm-7pm & we will be more ready for it.......

Jonathan, shoudl have come to ours in the evening - you could have watched Shrek 3

.......the wind does not look so good for Sunday, we may end up just sitting on the beach & watching the pretty boats again Will be down during the afternoon, so will see you there then maybe......

......well, we have been looking at the OMWC forum for remote signs from others that they may be heading down plus forecasts, wind readings & webcams from around the solent........& have not made it to the beach (yet).

The trees have been motionless most of the day in Southampton & its been largely overcast......& after a late-ish night none of us really had the umph to get going.

......Jonathan, if you did make it down today, we appologise.......maybe you could write today up for the report!