Look, it was sunny outside, okay? It looked pretty warm, for February.
I’ve just been windsurfing. Well, actually, I got back just over an hour ago, but I’ve only just got enough sensation back in my fingers such that I can operate a computer with a modicum of success. It seems that large open expanses of water in Manchester are quite a lot colder in February than in, say, August.
To be fair, the wind was pretty good, although gusting a bit, and I got a couple of good planing reaches, but I spent considerably more time in the water being laughed at by small children – “Daddy, why is that man in the water? Isn’t he cold?” – than I really wanted to. I gave up after about an hour, when I could no longer feel my fingers or toes (the middle of a lake is a really bad place to discover that you no longer have the strength to hold the sail up, incidentally). I probably spent more time rigging and derigging than I did on the water.
(which reminds me – surely someone must have come up with a gadget that makes putting downhaul on your sail easier than pulling very, very, very hard on your downhaul line? Even the 3-way pully, useful as it is, doesn’t exactly make it easy. Usually by the time I’ve rigged my sail, I’m sufficiently exhausted and my arms ache enough that I’m thinking it would be nice to go home right about then)
Anyway. That’s got my average cost per session down to about £200 now. I’ve only got to use it another 51 times before it pays for itself.
I think I’m going to go to the pub now.