Too little to too much

After two long days in a row we were all tired, and us kiters a bit sore. We allowed ourselves an extra hour lie in, until 08:00 instead of our usual 07:00. But couldn’t afford much more as the south west wind that had brought us on a down wind course here was going to turn northerly later in the day. We needed to head north west to get anywhere along the Irish coast, and down wind is a lot easier and faster course to travel than upwind, which involves lots of zig zagging.

Our refuelling stop allowed us to meet one of Wale’s super stars. The man operating the pump had just come back from the Karate World championships in Scotland. He’d placed 8th. Congrats! I love how we’ve been meeting all of these incredible people as part of this trip. Its funny how when you take a moment to say hello and speak to people we all have something interesting to say.

Launching today we needed to be quick and efficient. We’d stopped just past the main shipping channel but didnt want to risk drifting back inside of it as we kept seeing new ships appear on the horizon. Usually I launch first to check the wind and ensure we’ve chosen the correct kite sizes. That way if its too strong Stew can take the kite off of me and I can pump a smaller one. (Its rarely the other way around as we both know how tiring it can be when you’re under powered). In our hast to get ready today, we pumped the bigger (Stew’s) kite first. Didn’t change anything except meant Stew, who is usually a slightly faster kiter, got more of a head start than usual.

Stew and I have been kiting together, sharing kit, for over 14 years and our weights have always meant we’re a kite size apart. So if I’m happy on a 9m (my most common kite), Stew will be on the 11m. Kite manufacturers usually make kites 2 meters apart. Some brands come in even sizes, and others in odds. But the wind range of most kites means there’s some overlap between any two adjacent kite sizes.

Unfortunately now with the foil boards the 2 meter rule between our kite sizes no longer holds. When foiling you still need the power to lift you up out of the water but once you’re up on the foil there’s very little resistance so you need very little to keep going. This means that Stew and I are almost on the same kite size. Today we noticed this difference on both extremes.

When we started I was having to work hard to keep up on my foil. Being so underpowered I had to keep my kite moving lots giving me a good arm workout. (Typically in our rush to get going I hadn’t put on my gloves, so I’ve got the beginning of a few blisters along the tops of my palms). Looking ahead I could see Stew’s kite steadily pulling him forward, with him consistently up on the foil. I on the other hand kept getting swamped by the on coming waves, moving forward but progressively getting pushed that tiny bit further down wind when we were trying to head up.

The predicted wind shift came, but it turned north westerly, not northerly. I.e. from exactly the direction we needed to go. It also increased and fast. In the space of 30 minutes I went from being underpowered but going, to starting to reach for my depower. Stew on the other hand went from comfortable to completely overpowered (even after depowering his kite as much as it would go). We hadn’t been making much progress in the right direction anyway so we decided to call it a day.

When we finished packing up we were just off Skomer, where a couple in Padstow had recommended to go to see puffins, so we headed there to find a spot for the night.

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