Got off the water today when I was approached by a brummie.
"I couldn't help noticing yow've got one of those wind things. Could yow tell me what the wind speed is"
I told him it was gusting up to 34knts and was indeed very gusty.
"Only we've got one of them jetskis, but i've heard you're not to take em out if it's very windy" he said
" Well it is very windy," I replied.
He walked off and then came back.
"The wife says I can take it out if it's not over force 3, what force is it?" he asked
"More like force 7," I replied.
"Right, we'll go home then." he ventured.
Great stuff!!

tim,

saw a holiday maker walk across to the beach this morning with his shorty on and body board tucked under the arm. i bet he was thinking, big winds = big waves. i would have love to see his face when he arrived at the beach to find it llike a mill pond.

i think it should be a new sport. what the holiday makers get up to on the beach.

like letting your kids swim in the estuary mouth even though the signs say the currents are strong. of course it must be safe its hot and the sea is calm!!!

tim, wind kept picking up. derek was getting pulled of his edge on his 5m.

I know what you mean, we used to love watching the tourists in Newquay waxing the bottom of their boards and the those with boogie boards attaching the wrist leash to their ankles then running to the sea and tripping over!

Jeez, it must have been super silly for Derek to get pulled off his edge on a 5!

was that the Beaufor scale Tim?

You'd have all enjoyed being in the Estuary at 7pm last night.

We'd had a nice sail and the wind was such that even when the tide went out we were sailing across the channel to the big sandbar, gybing and heading back to the beach near the entrance.
As the tide went out we had to put up with more and more Jetskis in a smaller area and the odd speedboat.

The little sandbar near the beach was now fully visible at about 3" below the surface, but one of the Jetskis, with a tyre trailing behind, hit the sandbar at full tilt. Not too bad, he just had to get off and push it.

Thinking that things couldn't get better, I was just about to beach start when I saw a speedboat at full speed charging up the estuary, (he had been at sea where that sort of stuff is realtively safe). He wasn't slowing down so I judged I'd let him pass. But lo and behold he wasn't coming past me, he was heading for the beach. He hit the sandbar with a great flurry of sea and sand coming from his prop. Last time I saw anything like it was in a Bond film. He was smack in the middle of the sandbar by the time he stopped.

I wonder how his watercooling system is this morning.

[Edited on 15-8-2005 by Dave]

i didn't see it happen but did see about 10 people trying to push it off the sand!! didn't realise how far up the sand bank it had managed to get! shame, eh?!? maybe next time he'll stick to the sea instead of trying to impress the tourists stupidly close to the beach!