Sailed at Auckland, Coniver Grove
Rated a 1 of 10

Wind from the SW (knots)

gusts: 20

Board: Starboard Carve 99 2004 Wood
Sail: NP Saber 6.2 2005
Fin: Drake Freeride 320
Suit: Short sleeve.

What a day. First my car broke down, on the motorway, on my way to work. Engine overheating, steam coming all through the bonnet. I stopped immediately and called the AA. After topping up the radiotor and engine coolant, and checking things, the AA guy reckoned I shouldn't drive it anymore. So I had to be towed away, back to home. I can work from home, so that wasn't too big a problem. But car repair costs might be huge if I had damaged the engine.

As it was Friday, around 16:00 the kids were coming home with some friends. I might not get a lot of work done while they were around and the wind was looking good, so I decided to windsurf after having seen that high tide at Coniver Grove was around 18:15.

When I came on the water, it started to rain and there came some huge galls. Had three fantastic runs and when I reached the opposite side of the estuary the wind suddenly dropped. Dead. No wind whatsoever. I first waited to see if the wind would pick up again, but it didn't. I started swimming to the shore, so I at least had some ground under my feet. The sun was sinking fast and because it's winter time, it gets dark early now, around 18:30. I became quite worried, because I knew that my wife would be extremely worried if I wasn't home after dark. I put my gear on the beach and started walking to a home. But it was abandoned, no one around, so I couldn't call here. But then I saw a fellow windsurfer with a big board and a 8.5 coming to the beach. He had seem me drifting and was asking if there was something he could do. I asked him if he perhaps could call my wife. I could swim back with my gear in the meantime. But he suggested I leave my gear on the beach, put it in a windless corner, and come back with him so I could drive around and pick up my gear. I thought this might be the best thing, he didn't have to remember my wife's phone number and I could call her when I was in the car. So I held on to the back footstraps and he pumped his way back, it was still very windless. The wind picked up a bit near the shore, so I could float on my back and grab the back footstraps behind my head, that way we moved fairly quickly. Near the shore I started walking to the beach while my friendly fellow windsurfer zigzagged back to the car park, which was around the corner. I could take a short cut, so I jogged my way back to the car in a few minutes. Called my wife, and drove around. Couldn't find any access close to the beach where my gear was. Looked closely at the map. It seemed the beach where I left my gear was actually an island... No road let to it according to my map. Maybe it was only accessible with a 4WD at low tide?? As it was dark, there was nothing left to do than drive home and leave my gear behind.

Map here: http://wwww.pobox.com/~berend/windsurfing/coniver-grove-1.png

What next? I decided to cross the estuary on foot at low tide. Didn't know if this was possible, but I knew the estuary was mostly dry at low tide. Low tide as at 00:30. My son wanted to come with me, so I left home around 23:15. Around an hour to cross the estuary I reckoned, and an hour back, with gear on my back. Luckily we had some moonlight, so it wasn't too dark. Unfortunately the water hadn't retreated much. The middle was still covered with water. And the ground near it was sucking mud, ankle deep in the mud. No way we could cross this. So we headed back home.

The plan now was to windsurf with big board and 8.5 to the opposite side the next day, around high tide which was at 6:45. I would take some ropes with me and windsurf back.