So the event has finished! What a day! We arrived at Llandegfedd at 7.30, only a handful of us keen people there. Rigging was a nightmare, I forgot how long it takes to rig cammed sails and find a long enough boom, put a fin on etc, let alone carrying all the kit-its massive! I used a 155l starboard formula board and a 6.5 sail. Using a 155l after a 68l was very weird, I could practically dance on the thing! After Mike Walkin had been first on the water (he was doing first on, last off and teaching 4 complete beginners well enough they could participate in the event); me, Stef and Matt set off straight away on the marathon while the wind was good. I had a GPS to measure the distance, which because of the wind direction meant annoyingly we would do reaches across the narrowest part of the reservoir-back and forth 52 times! So 104 times turning around! That was tiring! Mid way through I was getting tired, and my knees really ached from being still locked down on the board, its not like wave sailing where you are moving the whole time! Me and Stef carried on non-stop while Matt had a few rests and rigged different sails. Stef, (we estimated as he didn't have a gps), completed the 26.2 miles in 1 hour 45 while I did it in 2 hours. I blame this on my slower board ha ha (He used an isonic slalom rather than formula). Still, a great time and a lot faster than we both expected! Matt carried on with a few breaks to complete it in just more than 4 hours.
The rest of the day we were on and off the water until 6pm, when the wind died. I was so glad to be out of my wetsuit after 10 hours of soggyness!There were still some guys out on the water until 8, making sure there was someone windsurfing for the whole 12 hour period, with Mike being the last off. At midday I reckon there were about 30-40 guys out and a lot of spectators-a great show for the event and a really fun, (but tiring) day!! So far I have raised £145 and Stef £201, much more than we were expecting, so thank you for all the generous donations! If you feel we deserve it and still want to donate to cancer research, the link is:
Just Giving!
I will try and post some photos when I get hold of some, I didn't take any being on the water most of the day! On Thursday I head to the Rhosneigr and Ireland BWA events with Stef and Mike (Turfdog) Archer-bring on the wind and the waves!!
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