Thanks, Michael!
Day 1 (Jan 15th, 2018), Session 1 - Esperance (name of launch TBC).Humbled. With a lingering tropical cyclone affecting northern spots for the next two days, we drive south to Esperance from Perth- a routine 8h spot check around these parts. Cloud cover there was also providing sub-normal conditions, but we eventually settle on trying to sail a spot that had some waves on offer. Hard to assess the situation from the bluff, but Jaeger and another local seemed to be making it work, although doing some serious hoolla dancing to get in and out. A bit smashed from the travel, I should maybe have thought twice when Jaeger came in and said "it's
Hard, but there are a few
fun ones, if you can make it out". Wasn't going to sit out on day 1 - rigged 5.2/93, with about 45mins of day light left.
The wind was extremely tricky on the inside, and basically all the way out to where sets were forming. It was like trying to sail North Chestermans on a 0-20knot SE day, expect harder. Once in a while a logo set would come through, but generally it looked manageable for a slog and ride out. Wrong.The travel and having not sailed in many weeks had my slog and ride game off, and I fell in at a rather inconvenient moment. Duck dove my rig effectively to survive a nice set of 3, and it looked like I had a window to get organized to continue out, almost on the wind line and the outside at this point. Wrong again. Half way through getting my rig organized to water start, a wave jacked up surprisingly quickly from an odd direction and dumped on me. What by Canadian standards looked to be a roll-ya-around-abit kinda wave, was a session ender in WA. Sail torn from edge to luff sleeve in the second panel. F#@$. Swim time.
Thankfully the whites weren't hungry for French cuisine this Monday evening, and I had one decoy with me on the water to improve my odds. Still, taking a 15min swim back to shore through a swift rip, with the sun setting in a particularly known-to-be-sharky spot was making for excellent cardio.
Back at the beach with all my limbs still attached, I faced my 500 stair walk of shame back up to the bluffs, where I was surely awaiting a roasting from the peanut gallery. Half way up the stairs, the clouds parted and the most incredible sunset began forming. By the time I was back up to the parking lot, the sky was jaw dropping.
To me, this was WA saying, in a malign kinda way, "Welcome to western 'straya, ya c$#+":