Took the AI out today. 30 knot constant winds going with a strong tide, so not too choppy. Went down to see the seals, later than usual, got there about 2 hours after high tide, which is the most treacherous time. The mud banks are difficult to judge at the best of times. I had the sail reefed back to the H in the Hobie logo and all was going well, albeit very wet. Having got there, most of the seals had left for the day, so snapped a few that were about and then headed back now against wind and tide, that was at its strongest by then. I was constantly getting battered with big spray in the forms of actual waves breaking over me and constantly covering my face, making it difficult to see and breath. Upshot was that I was misjudging my exit from the creek and whilst covering the ground at 8 knots, was also going sideways bigtime. I then went aground and broke off one of the Mirage drive masts. The wind and tide then pinned me on the mudbank and with only one fin working, I was not able to do my usual escape by pushing off with the paddle and then pedal hard to put some distance between me and the shallows whilst setting up to use the sail (that I had furled whilst aground). The wind was very strong and constant. The windage on the AI was amazing, I hadn't realised how affected it would be. The rudder was doing odd things and was constantly getting overpowered. I ended up throwing the anchor out to stop it drifting any further onto the mud where there were also rocks to snag on. I had a breather and then climbed over the side and waded through knee deep silt to the stern to have a look at the rudder. It had popped out of the retention clip that the blade clips into, and would not relocate using the downhaul. I physically pushed it back into the correct location and re tensioned the downhaul. I then pulled out the drive and removed the buggered fin and mast, the remaining one seems to have survived, so I put the drive back in with just the one. I got the sail rigged ready for quick action and pushed off . It took 4 attempts to get away. During all this the seat locating pegs decided to come out of their holes
so I ended up lying there with a heavily reefed sail banging on my head whilst I tried to sail myself into deeper water. The other problem was that I really needed to point upwind to escape, but of course the AI doesn't point well, so I had to do lots of short quick tacks that had me drifting sideways back towards the mud during each tack, until I eventually got into the channel with deep water, once there, I could relax and trim everything, I had a good but soaking wet sail back. Once ashore, checked the Velocitek to see what the highest speed had been, it was showing 11 knots of which 3 would have been the tide flowing with it downwind which also makes sense that it was indicating 8 knots agains the tide (and wind).
So, got a few breakages to sort out and I will change the rudder pin as a precaution. Whilst stripping it down afterwards, to pack it away, I noticed the the holes for the pins to secure the akas to the crossbar have all ovalled badly and the plastic bolts in the lockout are no longer a snug fit (despite being new), allowing the plastic insert with eye to move in and out of the lockout. A new pair of ST fins will also be needed.
Not a good day! But I still enjoyed myself!
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