Smacked about on a downwind

My buddy Dale and I had an eye-opener of a downwind yesterday when the (totally unforecast) wind swung offshore and increased dramatically. Here's what happened:

The forecast said that it was going to be blowing a moderate WNW of 12-18kt, so I was dubious that we’d get a downwind in since we generally look for at least 20kt.

But as the afternoon wore on, the wind seemed to be getting stronger and by 3pm, the Fish Hoek Sailing Club was showing 15-25kt and stronger at Cape Point. The direction at Fish Hoek was showing as due West, but at Cape Point it was NNW.

So I called up Dale and we got on the water at about 17h50… (Too late.)

I had left the radio behind in a bag I’d taken out of the car, so my wife asked me if I wanted to take her phone. I nearly said no, then thought I might as well, if only to keep her happy!

After all, the conditions were really mild, there was no real need for a phone or a radio…

Yeah, right.

As we paddled out of the bay we could see that the wind did have quite a bit of west in it - and we were hit by a sheeting squall just as we exited the bay…

The run was pretty much the usual stuff - I worked right towards Simonstown because of the wind direction; however Dale did not and kept pace with me but quite a bit further out to sea.

The runs started 3km in and I had a ball - I was working right because of the wind direction, but I was throwing the boat about and making sequences. After the lighthouse it was really good - but the weather started coming in more and more from my right until I was being hit side on by some pretty big waves.

In spite of that I was still catching runs and enjoying myself - but I was concerned about Dale because he was so much further out. Finally, just under 2km from Millers Point the wind got even more fierce and I looked back to see Dale heading inshore… I thought, good! He’ll come across to join me and we can paddle in together.

At this point we had 2-3ft waves coming directly offshore, accompanied by sheeting squalls - so the gusts were definitely 30kt+. I wasn’t too worried at that point, but I did try to turn into the wind, and found it extremely difficult. So I more or less hove to, keeping my nose diagonally into the waves and wind so I wasn’t getting smacked totally side on, and just paddled very gently. I was still doing about 6-7kph and heading in the right direction, glancing back every now and then to see how Dale was doing.

The first few times, I could see him, making progress. Then I glanced back - and suddenly he wasn’t there any more.

So now what? I couldn’t turn back. It was far too rough to try to use the phone. There was no point in just hanging about. So I made up my mind to head for the finish and summon help.

I set off again, now being very conservative and paddling at 8-9kph… No more catching runs! Then the wind got even stronger and I felt a faint flutter of panic. But I thought - the point is only a few hundred metres away, just don’t fall in, on the other side it’ll be calm…

There was just one more adrenalin spike when I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to go through the rocks as we usually do - there was a fairly large swell running, breaking on the reefs in the area and that, combined with the opposing wind, was making a maelstrom where we normally go… So I realised I was going to have to turn downwind and paddle around the end of the line of rocks. The thought of paddling downwind, away from safety, was not a pleasant one, but I had no choice.

As I rounded the outermost rock, the sea did indeed calm down and it was a relatively simple matter to crawl upwind towards the ramp. Louise said that I seemed to be moving incredibly slowly - actually I was doing around 6kph, not bad in the circumstances!

But I was terrified for Dale - I hadn’t seen him now for over 15mins and I had no idea where he was.

I threw some clothes on and, leaving the ski, drove up to where we could get cell reception and I called the NSRI to tell them that we might have a problem. Happily, seconds after that, a big pickup truck pulling a fishing boat came towards us from the north ramp - and the fishermen confirmed that they had seen Dale and he was coming in…

I called the NSRI back to stand them down and we drove over to the ramp in time to see Dale finally arrive.

I was so glad to see him.

He said that he’d seen me trying to turn into the wind and had been equally worried for me - he’d decided to head straight for the shore, but had fallen in, which was probably when I lost sight of him. He said he got back in the boat without too much problem, but was blown around so that the boat was facing back towards Simonstown. He figured that was ok, he might be able to work his way out of the area where the wind was so strong coming off the mountain… But then he got blown around again towards Millers Point.

He said afterwards that at times he doubted that he was going to make it.

He had flares, but no mobile. Of course neither of us would have been able to operate any kind of device unless we were in the water - and in extremis.

Anyway - it was truly an eye-opening experience. Never take even the reverse Millers for granted.

The thing that shocked me most was that the conditions were totally unexpected - I've done that run dozens of times in many different conditions - and it's NEVER done anything like that. It's almost always strong in that area, and a little offshore, but this was totally different.

Things that helped keep panic at bay:

- the stability of the boat. For whatever reason, although the Zest feels slightly more tippy than the Evo II on flat water, in those conditions it felt solid.
- my GPS that told me I was doing 4-6kph even directly into the wind, very reassuring.
- the fact that we've been racing in wild conditions in our Hout Bay series, so we're actually quite experienced in paddling upwind into 30kt plus conditions. (One race was abandoned when the gusts got up to 44kt.)

Anyway - this was definitely one for the books. I'll never look at the reverse Millers in quite the same way again!

Here's the Garmin Track

Phew! Saw two skis leaving from Fish Hoek on a reverse Millers Run at about that time (we are staying in Fish Hoek at the moment). It must have been you. Didn't realise that the wind had veered around so much. Glad you made it! What was Dale paddling?

Good to see you both got back safe.

What was Dale paddling?

Dale was on his Think Evo II.

Ha - looking again at my HR trace, the last couple of km my HR was above 160bpm - that's proper race pace! Clearly I was pretty hyped up.

Thanks for sharing your experience - reading this type of story always helps me "re-calibrate" and ensure that I don't get too complacent when nothing has gone wrong in a long time.