MOTLEY MISHAPS!
My first inkling that a plan was going down was in New York JFK airport on the way home from the Aloha Classic. I received a text informing me that The Motley Crew were considerately planning to come over and visit me on the Isle of Wight the very next morning after I arrived home. Now that plan was sure to go down like the proverbial lead balloon with the missus; away for nearly three weeks and then straight off to the beach with the lads, surely there was no way that she would approve! On top of lack of consent from the missus, from past experiences the chances were slim that this was going to be a slick operation. Last time Jamie Hancock tried to come over he was not allowed on the boat because a scooter rally had fully booked up the car ferry. When he finally arrived at Niton, the wind died, the skies clouded up and to rub salt into the wounds poor Jamie just missed the ferry home by five minutes and had to wait another hour before the next one. He finally skulked home in a state of utter misery and I doubted he would ever come back.
Previous utter failures and total disasters would not prevent the Motleys though; if it did we would have all given up windsurfing a long time ago! Call it optimism or just plain old fashioned stupidity, this new plan had been hatched and Jamie was in the mix once again. Island local, Ross Williams was already back on the rock after recently winning the British title in Cornwall and from what I could gather, Jamie, Timo Mullen and Aleksy Gayda were all jumping into one van and heading over for the afternoon session at Niton on the dropping tide and expecting me to be on duty behind the camera.