Hail the first sail of the season!

It was a wet-suit day for the first sail of the season. It was a gusty N-NW wind which meant a tricky tack out of the cut. I sailed towards the point, minding my own business and keeping out of the way of the race when a hailstorm hit us.

I headed out to the pit but decided not to go any further as there was no one else about and it could have got dodgy in squally conditions

Instead, I had a long, fast reach all the way to the Cley channel to the junction with the old and new cut near the beach road. I tried to stop but it was tricky in the gusts so I just headed back  - at quite a rate.

 It being the first sail of the seaon there were bound to be a few teething problems. The most irritating was that I hadn't rigged my usual bungy centreboard downhaul so had to make a lash-up with one of my essential 'bits of string'

I reached towards buoy 6 and then sailed back with the leaders of the last race with an exciting run down the cut which wasn't quite as hairy as I was fearing.

I should have a GPS trace