Yes this story has all the makings of an Enid Blyton classic, if Enid was actually illiterate of course. But before Mrs Blyton’s estate sues us and JC’s literary masterpiece hits the bins of the worst seller section on the shelves of your local bookstore, Windsurf Towers publishing house are going to spill the beans on what really happened when five heroic windsurfers braved the treacherous seas of the Jurassic Coast. So without further ado, once upon a time…
ALL GOOD PLANS – JOHN CARTER
“ Storm clouds looming on the horizon meant none of the sailors had any confidence on what sail size to rig ” – JC
“There is nothing more satisfying than making a plan, see it nearly fail, be postponed several times but then finally pull it off despite all sorts of last minute hurdles and mishaps. Just like Hannibal from the A-team, which the office often tell me I am nothing like, I love it when a plan comes together! I imagine it’s a bit like the guys at the Storm Chase might have felt, although the scale of this project was way bigger…well maybe not quite! My simple idea of organizing a down winder from Portland to Lulworth Cove seemed to be relatively straight forward but when you throw in the variables of weather, availability and all those other niggly bits and pieces, bringing together a few sailors, myself and a safety boat on a particular day was a lot more complicated than it looked on my tippex covered bit of paper.
After countless shenanigans and abandoned attempts, our opportunity finally loomed, a nice flow of westerly winds was forecast, Ross Williams had just stepped off the plane from a trip to Korea and Hawaii (lucky sod) and a valiant crew of local riders headed by Tris Best were chomping at the bit for a one way trip to explore some the finest scenery of the south coast of England. In a nutshell the plan was to depart from the OTC headquarters in Portland, with yours truly in a safety boat armed with cameras to record all the action. The infamous arch at Durdle Door just before Lulworth Cove was a definite target but aside from that we were going to just cruise along and shoot any bits of the coast that were interesting. After blasting out of the harbour, there wasn’t much of a plan aside from trying to stick together and not treating our mission as a race. We certainly didn’t want one hero to blast off solo and scatter the pack; this was a team mission with fun the essence of the whole concept! At certain points along the way the lure of a bag of giant chocolate cookies, five bananas and a crate of water bottles on the boat would hopefully bring us altogether so we could plan our next move! As the crow flies, the distance from start to finish was a mere ten miles but I am guessing you could easily double that windsurfing back and forwards adjacent to the coast. So that was the plan, we had a forecast for 18-25 knot westerly winds, a few odd showers and sunny spells, so dare I say it, what could possibly go wrong!