WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SAILING
The sailing, yes. I want to romanticise it and say that it is 4.7 and a logo
high peeling left that will make your arms give up before it does. I want to
say that because I’ve experienced it on so many occasions, but not this time.
This time we were a bit unlucky. Bobbing 5.3 without any real swell to talk
about. Days are still busy though. You swim in the lagoon, play chess, read
a book or go for a surf. You hang around and enjoy where you are.
The forecast did, however, look good for the last two days of the trip.
Ok, how can we optimise our travel to the airport without risking missing
the flight? It is a 12-13 hour drive, and a lot can happen on the way. Getting
stuck with flat tires without any road assistance or without water on a dirt
road with no passing cars.. could be the beginning of a horror movie.
Sorted, we are staying to get an extra day sailing.
The late session usually has lighter side-off winds, but unluckily this
time coincides with low tide. I’m going out, there are the occasional mast
high sets, and I can’t go home without giving it all I’ve got.
DOWN AND OUT
The medic kit, yes. Glad I brought it. I was late on a section and got eaten
like a bowl of popcorn at a Disney movie by 10-year-olds on a sugar rush.
Brutal and without mercy.
I sliced my foot, and it looked like I’d tried to fight off a ninja with it.
Luckily my friends Wendy & Maria had their wound game on point and
fixed me up. Sailing, no, forget it. Their motherly instincts took over, but
they knew I listened with one ear.
I wasn’t so cocky the day after with a foot feeling like it wanted to
detach itself from my ankle. Finally it got windy with some swell. It was
our last day, I had to sail. I’m positive duct tape could solve world crises if
someone could find a way to use it. It has saved me so many times before
and did this time again. Salt water in deep cuts is something that could
make Superman cry, or at least that thought makes me feel better about
crying. It sure was worth it though. The sailing was the best we had for the
whole trip.
Sitting in the car on our way to civilisation you have time to let things
sink in. We travel all this way, to a place so primitive, where just making
coffee can be a pain in the ass, to enjoy the wind and the waves. A place
like no other, where you are so far from home, but it still feels like home.
Merely a place you want to get back to as soon as you can.
“ I CAN’T GO HOME WITHOUT
GIVING IT ALL I’VE GOT. ”
60 JULY 2019
Fredrik dreaming about a camel/sherpa/passing 4x4.Fredrik from above.