West Coast Day 142 - Kalbarri to Perth

The howling wind kept us awake most of the night and we weren't surprised to find that diving was cancelled due to a strong wind warning. At least we have another activity to occupy ourselves when conditions are unfavorable for diving! Just as we were packing the windsurfing gear into the back of the car the local electrician came up to us and said he'd heard we were looking to buy a sailboard and rig for a beginner. It turned out he had just what we needed so we arranged to meet him at his house at lunchtime to take a look.

We drove 17km south to another small township called Greenhead so I could windsurf in a bay where I thought there would be good conditions for my slalom equipment. I rigged up my 4.5m2 sail and went sailing in South Bay in about 30knots of wind blowing from the south-west. I couldn't stay out for too long as I was getting tired quickly.

David did take a few photos and some video of me sailing - I'm so pleased, I've never seen a video of myself on my board. To de-rig the sail we had to move the car and position it so it blocked the wind from blowing lots of sand all over the gear! There were no taps to wash off the salt water but at least the hot wind dried the gear so we could quickly pack it away. As we packed the gear away I noticed a nasty 6 inch long crack in my carbon-fibre mast!!!! Not good. I knew this meant I couldn't sail until it was either repaired or replaced and this was not the place to find a windsurfing shop that could do it.

However, something did work out all right for us at least. We went to the electrician's house to look at the board he had for sale and offered him $250 for the board, 2 sails, boom, mast and sail bag. He accepted the offer but not the money and suggested we rig it up first and take it out for a sail before paying. That afternoon we scrubbed both our boards with Jiff and rinsed all our sails and other bits and pieces. We rigged up both sails and David looked so proud of his new toy.