ROBBY
“So after sailing alone for about 20 minutes, and wondering what had happened to Pozza after he’d got on the water first, I finally saw him making his way upwind. Another bout of hysterics was in order when I heard that first he’d dropped half of his mast, then his extension in the mad rush to get some waves. He was obviously out-of-sorts by now and his accelerated mental condition didn’t let him have the calm to check behind him to see if there was a more westerly set on the way in. I saw him go on a pretty good sized set but the one behind it was coming so far from the west that he would never be able to escape. I did feel sorry for him after the horrific day he had been having but I couldn’t help but have a little chuckle to myself again. I had a reasonable sail. It was very few-and-far-between with the sets and some were better than others – not as big as we hoped, but it’s just so much fun dropping into those huge glassy waves that travel so fast. It’d been a while since I sailed there, so I was happy that we paddled out in the end. Once I’d had enough, I didn’t have a ski there, so I sailed back down to Ho’okipa which is actually farther than I thought. I was happy to have the whole Brazilian crew sailing with me as it took a good 25 minutes and you feel quite exposed out there in the middle of the pacific with those huge sets rolling in. You don’t really want to go to close to the coast either, in case a big set comes and traps you inside. By the time I got back to Ho’okipa, it was 4pm and, with all the mishaps during the day, I hadn’t eaten since 7 in the morning, so it was definitely time for some food! Luckily Heidy had guessed where I was going, so she was right there in the parking lot when I arrived with some energy bars. It wasn’t the most successful Jaws session ever, but one of the scariest, all in all. Definitely not something I would rush to do again but a good experience to put down in the book of “things I shouldn’t listen to Polakow about doing!”
