D DAY
The following morning I woke before first light to the sight of Fergus staring me in the face before darting back to the comfort of his double bed with his master. A quick check on the wave buoy showed only a metre of swell combined with forty knots of wind, hardly the 6 metres predicted but I was still sure it would be a matter of hours before we were in business. With time on our hands we hit the nearby ‘M & S’ to load up with snacks and then made our way to Gwithian so we would be all set when the impending swell hit. I must admit at this stage, out of the three of us I was the most excited about Ophelia. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion to motivate Ross and Jamie to come storm chasing. For me the equation of huge waves and nuking winds conjured up dramatic photos, while for them sailing down the line in 40-60 knots could be utter hell, dangerous and purely a survival session rather than enjoyable sailing. A lot of UK wave sailors love to tackle these big storms and just to make it out the back and return unscathed is enough to satisfy their taking part in the chase! For the pros with the camera pointing at them and being expected to perform huge manoeuvres, it’s a whole different ball game and riding waves in 60 knots plus was not their idea of fun!
HIGH WIND ANTICS
We arrived at Gwithian and rather than huge plumes of spray off the waves we were met with a dust storm in the car park. We had to hang on as we exited the van as the violent gusts could easily have wrenched the doors off their hinges. I was genuinely worried that poor little Fergus could get blown off the cliffs!! Unfortunately the promised wind was not matched by the predicted swell. In a word it was flat! It was kind of annoying since there was not a cloud in the sky, the wind was nuking with ‘smoke on the water gusts’, but there was barely a ripple of a wave. By mid-morning, nothing had changed. About eight guys had bravely ventured out on the water to take on Ophelia all hanging on for dear life on their smallest equipment. Each sailor that came back up the cliffs looked pretty pleased to be back on dry land and no doubt would all have a tale to tell on how they had taken on Ophelia and survived. By 2pm we were starting to worry that perhaps the southwest swell was going to miss Gwithian altogether or had been blown flat. Surely six metres at 18 seconds was enough to send a small offering our way. Jamie and Ross were kind of relaxed, both making use of the space in the back of the van to set up an office for the day while I started to become frustrated that this day was going to be fruitless. Traversa had posted a clip from Ireland from the heart of Ophelia, and was apparently waiting for the 100 mph gusts to settle before hitting the water. The news was all about the storm in Ireland which caused three fatalities, huge damage to trees and properties while also leaving over 300,000 homes without power! The biggest recorded wave on the south east of Ireland was clocked at 17.81 metres on the M5 wave buoy before it broke away from its mooring! Meanwhile, the strongest gust recorded in Ireland was 156 km/h, while at Roches Point a sustained gust over 111 km/h was measured for over ten minutes.