A few years ago you wouldn’t catch me watching football, but with two soccer crazy boys it’s become almost impossible not to catch the bug. Both are Manchester United fans so when I got a text “got you three tickets for tomorrow’s game” there was no way I could turn them down. Had I known we’d be sailing the next day in snow we may not have made it a one-day trip.

Reece and Aaron play for Brightlingsea Regents in the Sunday league, and when not playing they’re talking, watching or dreaming football. When we’re away they always get asked if they windsurf, they can, and really enjoy it when we go to ClubVass. The reality is Dad does it, so it isn’t cool, which I can understand, my Dad sailed boats, which I guess is why I didn’t.

Since they found out I had a friend in Manchester, they’ve asked everyday for months about tickets, so when the text came through I new I have the best behaved kid in the world for 24 hours. Apart from the nine hours behind the wheel the day couldn’t have been better, we had good seats and came away with a 4-1 win to boot.

With the wind predicted to swing north of west we opted to go to Point Clear. I’ve never seen the tide so high, the beach was gone leaving a small patch of grass. Shaun went out first while I was going to grab a few pix, I took a couple but just didn’t have the patience to stay on the beach and quickly joined him. The other sailing pix below are from another windsurfing friend, Adrian. Recovering from a knee operation, his only windsurfing fix is from watching, so when he turned up he grabbed the camera out of my van.

I took a 5.0 Poison, but soon found that to be too big, I was even hanging onto the 4.7 at times, but as the wind swung more from the north the gustier it got. For a while the beach looked busy, but with it being Mothering Sunday it wasn’t long before Chippy Dave, Shaun and Anthony were the last on the water.

Normally Point Clear can be good for jumping, but the extra high tide left the sea choppy and confused. It improved as the tide dropped back, but then it had dragged all the weed off the surrounding marshland. Most runs you had to chop hope just to clear your fin, and then the snow came.

Not heavy enough to settle, but cold enough to freeze your brain and finally call a halt to our sailing. On the positive side, Adrian’s got a camper van so soon had the kettle boiling.