Last Saturday seemed like the last sail of the season, but still warm and windy.
Unusual for me, there was some sort of premonition, I checked the board carefully before leaving the beach. Fin, ropes, universal, boom, control lines and harness were all examined for signs of fatigue.
With a newly registered 'Fast Find' epirb tucked into the harness I went banging offshore Point Peron.
Thinking about safety the real weakness came to mind, me. Did I check muscle and joint function with stretches, what about respiration, heart rate and beat. My pacemaker battery has not been charged for over 10 years. The JP board and Neil Pryde gear was bullet proof compared to me!
Near to the Five Fathom Bank, and further offshore that I would care to admit, I did my customary lower into the water, and soft jibed for the return run.
The rig felt strangely loose, the swell still had the left over Margret River Classic guts. Big long downhill speed runs on steep green waves, a little wobble in the rig, bugger it, down the next one.
Rolling thru The Shoalwater Islands, on the last of the curling ones, then smooth water high speed into the beach. The mast almost detached from the board, with a broken universal joint, and the safety lanyard cords just about broken in two places. Another few hundred more metres and I would be swimming.
Had the cords broken 3 miles offshore then I could have got to use my new epirb,
and I would have done too if it was to far to paddle home before sunset. On the other hand maybe I could have tied the mastfoot to the board with the downhaul rope and self rescued perhaps.
The moral of the story, you can't check the condition of the uni rubber around the screw fastenings, and by the time the rubber is worn out by flex (4 years), the safety cords are stuffed by exposure too!
It only took 10 minutes to fit another mast base, and I was back out to the Bank and big waves again.
If it turns out to be the last sail of the year, then it was certainly one of the best, and enough for the dream to next season.