Apart from hitting the gym for a few hours every morning, I’ve hardly left the house. Catching up and preparing for the record attempt at Southend kept me behind closed doors all week. But once the entry form went out to those pre-registered riders I finally got time to get my new wave sails out of the box, timing was perfect for a windy end to the week.

I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of a six o’clock start, but if I don’t head to the gym by then excuses and work start to get in the way. While I want to do more weights, I still do an hour on cardiovascular kit. Haven’t been on the rower for a while and the first time broke me, but finally for the 5000m down to 18:49 without bursting my hart out of my chest.

It may sound like I’ve been doing all the work on the Southend speed event, but fortunately Pete Davis has been helping out. The jigsaw is looking complete so we sent out the entry form to all those who pre-registered this week, it had only been out a couple of hours before we started getting mails back. Bjorn was just one of those who was quick off the mark.

We did get a few emails that bounced, so if you haven’t got yours it may be because your email was missed typed why you registered. Just send it in again While I'm talking speed, we’re not alone in chasing records; Masters of speed started their quest this week. While its been successful for me in the past I wanted to put the five thousand entry towards doing something in the UK, which I guess where drivenbywind started. Not that it means I won’t be going down there, I’ve offered to caddy for Farrell O’shea and John Smalley, Though Farrell recons it will break me. Whatever happens I wish the MOS all the best.

I’ve had a box of new sails waiting to get wet, but with all the chasing around they’ve been sitting the garage. Finally got them out and popped on the logo’s just in time to head for Clacton. Sunday was the only day with wind, actually it would have been good at Southend for some speed, but felt that would be like using one of my days I need for net year.

There must have been more people out at Clacton this weekend than I’ve seen all year. The kits we’re there first to make good of the shallow waters at low tide, but as the water came in and the wind strengthened it became a windsurfing fun park. The wind was dead onshore which isn’t the best for Clacton, but I was still fully powered on a Poison 5.8. It was also a pleasure to see a girl out on our waters, Pam came down with Nik to see what Essex has to offer. Nik’s knee is stil a long way off from allowing him back on the water, but then we had a camera man… he keeps saying everything is for a reason.

I mentioned a coupe of weeks ago that we had a gallery in Brighlingsea, its was just to show different pix people had done etc. I’ve had a few emails asking to see what I’d done, so while you might have seen a few of them popping up before, there’s a bunch at the end.