The week started out with a disappointment at 5am, but by the end of the week I’d travelled more than my fair share of miles. Guy Cribb called his Bournemouth to Brighton run for Monday morning; I tried to convince him to delay hang fire for a few days, the forecast was looking better and a little more from the south, plus I was trying to buy some time for my ankle could recover.

Still keen to go I topped up the tank and was all set for an early start. The alarm went of at 5am, but I was back in bed ten minutes later with just a cupper for my troubles. Walking down the stairs was enough to know the conditions would be too choppy for my ankle.

Fortunately I’d given Guy a GPS while at JC’s wedding so we could record the event. Guy has the full story on his website www.GuyCribb.com, I’ve also put his track online at www.gpsspeedsailing.com so you can follow there day.

I turned to my bike to keep some exercise going and found the addition of a gps to be a great motivator. I need goals rather than just riding, some one to visit, number of miles or even average hart rate, just a reason to keep going.

At the start I was pushing hard and managed to keep my average hart rate above the 140’s, but then Nik Baker called, apparently I was doing it all wrong. Nik’s really into his bike training, even has a hard case so his bike can travel with him on every trip, which seams to be most weeks since started to look after the board line at Mistral. By the end of the week I started to lower the hart rate by peddling taster rather than harder. I think it makes sense; I’ll do what ever if it helps to get the weight down.

One ride I called in at Ski Surf in Colchester. Dave from the shop was talking about sailing Round Mersey Island and what direction would be quickest. That must have set a spark off in my head as I found myself drawn into going round later that day.

Riding home the wind started to build, I called the boys but they wanted to go to Clacton for some jumping later in the day. Still avoiding chop I sailed up the river out of Brighlingsea, and haven broken two deck plates in as many months I popped a phone into my gps bag.

I can’t remember the last time I sailed alone, seemed really strange not to have anyone to blast around with. We normally only sail here when the winds from the North as Mersey Island blocks the west wind which is what I had. After reaching around for a bit, that spark Dave set off kicked in. Have a look how to get round the island I thought. I have been round before but that was back in the 80’s on long boards and couldn’t remember how it looked.

My ankle was blocking me from taking on one side, it didn’t help as the river pointed strait into the wind. I was just going to take a look, but as the road bridge that connects the Island to the mainland came into view the idea of turning back started to fade. What I hadn’t realized was just how far away the road was, and to make it a bit harder the tide had turned.

It seamed to take and age and the closer I got the narrower the river became, it was so narrow I lost most of the upwind gain as I still had to gybe on one side. Having been with view of the road within tem minutes, it was another at least another thirty before I stood on the road.

The river is much wider on the other side and quickly starts to turn to the south towards Bradwell Power Station. Once on a reach I was able to quickly pass the crowded boats moored off the Westerly tip of Mersey and get back to open sea for a broad reach home only to stop a couple of time to say hi to a few of the Mersey boys.

Most places round the country had wind for the weekend, with the combination of a mid day low tide and west wind we didn’t get any great sailing, but then at least we got some.