Force majeure!

A wonderful time, sea, sun and beach, surfing great waves, spending a late summer day at the beach, that was the plan. Except what happened was this:

One of the first times in my life I was drinking seawater while remaining in an upright position. As people who have taken a look around our website may know, we don't have that much experience in traversing big swells. Sure, we spend a lot of time on big waters but, the Northsea @ Domburg with a NW wind of around 4 Beaufort was a bit more then we could chew. I can hear you thinking, that wave doesn't look that big. Well that's exactly what I was thinking while standing on the beach watching the foam of the waves blowing past us. Apparently there is a big difference in standing in front of a wave and sitting on your bottom in a very small vessel.

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 The first try with my Scorpio failed miserably, I could not stay upright even with a lot of praying. Maybe to the wrong guardian angel, who knows? After being swept out of the sea like a piece of driftwood I asked my friend, who was trying to take some action pictures of me before I drowned, if it would be smart to change boats. The answer was, stay out of the sea you crazy bugger. Normally I am the most prudent and careful guy that is out there but this time, I chose a different approach. Probably tumbling around like a washcloth in a 1950's dryer only moments before was clouding my judgement a bit. So instead of packing in my gear and drying of my Scorpio I went for the smaller, more agile Pyranha, an easier boat to handle in big swells. Or so I thought...

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So again into the swell, hi ho Silver! Away! My head still a tumbling mess, my brain unable to comprehend why its body wanted back into these waters. Secretely I wasn't all that chippy about it anymore, but I had to try with the smaller boat, otherwise I would never be able to look in the mirror again... that day. But after paddling like mad, taking the first wave like a pro, the second, the third, feeling exhilarated about my paddling skills and my ability to remain upright even though at that time I had not a full grasp of the meaning of the word upright because I was gobling up large quantities of seawater. Suddenly after the fourth and biggest wave I saw my friend standing next to me, in the middle of the sea,...?

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So ends well all well I suppose, next time I'll come back when the waves are a bit smaller, hopefully it will be a bit easier to buff up my skills then, until next time, mighty Northsea!