Bernie’s Travel Log: 500km of Wet and Wild Windsurfing

Here at Activity HQ we don’t just sell the most adrenalin fuelled activities, we also take part in them, and as we speak, one of our directors is windsurfing 500km down the northern coast of Brazil! Bernie is one of 14 windsurfers from around the world making the epic journey from Fortaleza and we’ll have regular updates of their progress throughout the week, starting with a summary of day one from Bernie’s travel diary.

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Day 1: Fortaleza

Day one was epic! My best single run being a 10km blast taking just 20mins before gybing 2.5km out to sea. Lots of big ships in the way! The wind direction was perfect for long runs near parallel to the coast.

There were problems though, logistical issues beset the first day meaning we set off 3 hours later than planned, thus missing the best wind (my 10km run would no doubt have taken a lot less than 15 minutes in the earlier stronger winds). The alarm on a bridge was set off when sailing under it because the tide was higher than planned, mast contact meant a wobbly ride for one of the team but all good.

The late start meant a night time finish (flashing lights on buoyancy jackets proved their worth) for some. Missing the low tide meant a number of trashings in the shore dump for a number of the team. Including the rather uncomfortable 10 minutes (felt significantly longer as most of it was under water) I spent being rolled whilst trying to protect my kit before finally being dumped on the beach 500 metres downwind. A combination of big dumping waves, low wind (which is always significantly lower in the impact zone), and a sail not designed for a wave environment led to a tricky water start being impossible.

A lot of lessons learnt, not the least being set off early. Today is windier, if we catch the early low tide we’ll be 60 kms down the coast at our next stop in no time.

For the most up to date information on Bernie’s progress head over to our Facebook and Twitter accounts or follow his GPS tracker labelled Activity HQ by following this link.