The thought of a seven-hour drive doesn’t really excite, add an eight knot rip into the mix and it’s enough to bring out a few excuses for staying at home. Having the gearbox fall out of the van would have been fair and honest reason to give this one a miss, but knowing the spot delivers it didn’t take long to persuade the wife it would be a romantic weekend.
Come on fellows you’d all do the same, how else was I supposed to get there, it’s her car, but to be fair Aberdovey is a beautiful place. All looked lost when we awoke to a drizzly windless morning, but by eleven a building wind had blown the rain away and was enough to invite us on the water.
The tide races into the river at Aberdovey at eight knots or more, so once the tide turns you already feel the wind has increased, there can’t be many spots where dropping a gybe will get you up wind quicker than sailing. But this increase in wind wasn’t just a feeling from the tidal direction; it really had picked up and was still building.
By the end of the day I was on a 4.7 and wanting a little smaller, Sunday started off the same but eased a little to make five meter something’s a little more manageable. This sounds like a one off especially when you consider it was a demo day, but this is a one off, it seems that Aberdovey has special effect going on as I’ve only been skunked here once before, no wonder Boardwise have made this their home beach.
As for that romantic weekend, well five hours on the water wasn’t going to help, but it was the legendary Boardwise barbeque that really put pay to any romance. Sally made that fatal mistake of trying to keep up with the pace, a big mistake.
