Received a custom race / tow in type board from Louis Tapper in NZ and met up with Captain Stuart on the Support Boat Calypso to take it out in Bass Strait for a test run.
5 minutes after getting on the very big very strange board I was navigating my way from Bass Strait through the heads with its rips and massive washing machine waves into Sorrento.
Clearly I'm still alive to tell the tale so thats got to be as bad as it gets right??
Captain Stuart tells me to expect the whole run from Tassie to be at least that bad.
OMG what have I signed up for???
We practised doing a boat launch in the Strait... this was a little hairy and of course my lines were inverted. Hopefully for the crossing I will take off from Stanley beach on the same kite I arrive home with. But should there be any malfunction we will need to be able to do a boat launch of a spare kite which will be carried on the boat.
My waterproof radio got water in it and didnt work (just like my waterproof GPS last week - I do hope my iphone waterproof pouch doesn't follow suit) so had to rely on signals from the boat. The crew pointing in the direction they want me to go and me pointing in the only direction I could go lead to aborting the ride after an hour zig zagging to get closer to land. This was done in the lovely calm waters of the bay and was pretty sweet. The landing the kite and getting it onto the boat did go a lot better than last time.
2 months ago when we tried the same mission in a 40K Northerly resulted in a lost board that surprisingly turned up 2 months later floating in Bemm River near Orbost covered in barnacles.
BTW ... small mouse was in mouse friendly trap when we got home and is now happlily running around in his enclosure again.
At least I dont need to go mouse hunting today!
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