Albany, Lilac Speed Sailing

What an awesome couple of days! Here comes my essay, wish that I paid more attention in high school English to be able to do a good job here LOL.
Wed morning we were on the road at 455am, so 5 min early. UBER driver Steve was in good spirits and I was too having called 'Shotgun'. Fuel stop then off. Boring boring boring. Rocky Gully stop to stretch legs the remove 1/4 contents of trailer to find out that the spare wheel didn't fit, lol, repack kit and drive a bit slower. At Barker we found a tyre shop with the F1 team ready to do a 4 tyre change & rotation while we had a leisurely coffee & savoury muffin, bloody yum!! Pick up car trailer via bottle shop & IGA for supplies. On the road again UBER Steve very proud of the 4 shiny black boots he purchased. Road works in the middle of nowhere and a few choice conspiracy theories going around. 1004am and we arrive a the Lilacs venue, unit 10 is the one! Lawn out the front strewn with kit. Maaaate, this must be the right place! and the water, flatter than flat! OMG, whoo is that idiot out already? Stretchyman, of course! 1015am and he's done an hour already, gawd whats he up to or where does he get his insider info? (His mum)
We emptied the trailer to the absolute amusement of the other crew having now covered enough lawn to run an AFL training sesh, stretching & situps only tho. 10boards 15 sails and associated bits. The trailer is a modern TARDIS. All super keen to get out but the 'locals' were playing it cool, 'Ill go at 2 I think, when the wind builds'. Oh, ok, we will settle in first then have a cuppa rig all our sails move foot straps & be on the water at 1130, ish. Drew didn't listen to that part and hit the water about 11 to really get the jump on us all. I was on the water after deciding that the locals were on 7.0 sails and sub 100l boards. Tribal Delta 18 AB+59 wide by 90l and 7.0RSX Conver. Im ready.
What a truely magic place is Albany for sailing at speed and in relative safety. The crew which was calculated at 18 GPS sailors (by counting legs and dividing by 2)with 4 randoms about throughout the afternoon. Great water conditions, plenty of wind, enough peeps to drag race with and action to keep one smiling laughing or just in awe of the bareaways in the glass followed by huge gybe rooster tails (Stroppo being the main show off, but I would too if I could do it that well) I did one & got grin & thumbs up from the master so I was on a high. Gybes in the flat with acres of room and ample wind in the sail make it look too easy. Everyone was smoking the corners!
Mr X, the me! me! me! attention getter. Fractured femur, sheese, wear bright helmet next time for attention. A real nasty crash where the off the breeze speed, gybe action, swinging harness line hook up and knee deep water spelt "oh dearie me". Luckily he was looked after by a couple of guys that realised the he wasn't really waving 'hi' to them after all. They were 55min into a smoking 1hr attempt which didn't count due to them stopping 5 min early. Mr X was helped by plenty of passer byers and once at the villa left to his devices. He some how crawled to the loo, shower, undressed, redressed and sat on lounge with beer! WTF or HowTF?
Steve drew and I reentered the water, Steve and I to chase Drew who had 90km done vs my 63 & Steve 34. Steve stopped before the accident to have lunch so was well behind. I made the decision to get a few more pix while out although I knew that it would effect my results. I know, ill take pix and keep sailing, too easy! One handed, thats why we have a harness isn't it?
We sailed and sailed and I even did a few Nm attempts but was under done but when Steve ventured up for a go he smoked it given the lack of wind, well done mate! Pb no less!
About 4 the numbers on the water were dwindling and finally Drew pulled the pin but as I knew that he had a big distance I wanted to keep going to back up his big numbers. He had 167km on the GPS and I came off with 155km. Pb for us both and a cracker for the team too. On looking at our results MrX had a 2sec Pb of 32knot, meters before he stopped dead in the water!
My hands are so sore (not typing!) I was not sure how tomz was going to work or if I would be interested at all. I was.
I organised to get picked up by exhedlander but now local, Dallas Durant. We went out for a brew & feed and a good old gas. Dalas came down to see what was going on & the first sailor to talk to her was non other than local SW 's own Stretchyman. He was able to point me out and and prob tell some tails about me, ill check that out later. Needless to say that Dallas was pretty stoked to see so many doing what we do and in her town. Its a world class location to sail when Huey arrives. Great catch up Dallas, 5yrs or more.
When I got dropped back the UBER (ambulance) for MrX had just arrived. We tried to paint a good picture for the ambos, Im sure that they had a giggle, then he was gone, by Mr X, mate....
6AM! shiver me timbers, does it turn off? Who cares lets pack up and get out there. So thats what we did. Packed everything up and rigged up and on the water at 845 for Drew 9 for me. But Steve didn't really want to get out cos he kept talking to everyone. And I mean everyone. Well thats what we think or it was the 'talk to me sticker on his back'.
I was on a lovely round of bullets as Steve started his first reach, I came into earshot of him where he said we were taking MrX home. Bugger, we will have to be off the water at 11am!!! Bugger Bugger Bugger! Another 75km with a few fancy muddy offs but more laughing than anything (cept muddiness fun) The wind was picking up and getting better than yesterday, earlier & stronger. Water was also getting storm surging in to make the glassy areas accessible and FAST.
Side note - Stroppo had a magical Nm ride with an average speed over the 1.852km of a shade under 41knots ( 40.821 or 75.6kmh AVERAGE!!) mental, he wears a bucket hat too. Got to get me one of them.
Sailing finished and we have washed ourselves down, packed up & repacked for the invalid now to find the hospital. Lets pick up this random in the wheel chair, tick. Fuel for car & us then home. Lots of chatting and giving MrX heaps while he is under the influence. Cheers, roadies all round. A couple of stops but the 43 degree heat had up running back to the cars A/c.
Home in Busso. Pick up the car for MrX drop him home & inside, put in his script, buy KFC for the man, feed the animals. move chairs & obstacles into the way then run out with one of his beers. Ill call in later with kit, pee bag and water pistol.
We all had a blinder of a trip and other than the accident we all had a great sesh at Liptons. Thankyou Albany & GPSTC family.
Remember that Bussos G-bay will be the foiling central so get your life pass here before we have to charge you at the boom gate

pix to follow

Dave, you're making the same mistake as me, confusing Liptons with Lilacs! Easy done, but 400km between them.
Lilacs back lawn sure looked good, with all the rigs spread over it.