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Rich's Birthday 2005
Arriving at 1.30am after 288 miles, including my favourite stretch of tarmac in the UK, the A4212 between Bala and A470/A487, entering Pwllheli village was serene. The yachts were gently swaying under the light breeze in the motionless marina waters whilst the faint orange glow of street lamps mirrored their way across the surface.
A few beers later and it was most definitely bedtime, knowing that in less than 6 hours a knock on the door would alert me to a 20 minute window before we left for the marina. Wakeboarding was the order of the day, Si, Rich, Steve and me heading out with the girls joining us later. After a drawing of ‘shotguns’ for not going in first, Rich was most pleased that he hadn’t shotgunned at all! Our enthusiasm (Si, Steve, me) slightly dulled by the overcast murky clouds and breeze which had picked up a little by now. We all had a blast, sadly Steve not managing to get very far before dramatically ditching into the water again, but enjoyed it in any case.
"Enough of the boards" was an early afternoon decision taken by me, pushing Si into the sea and diving in after him I decided that we were going to hang on to the ski handle, without the skis. The initial pull as Rich accelerated wasn’t too bad, and at about 10mph we got up and planing, well, if you can call it that, on the surface. After a number of rethinks, I reckoned lying on our backs with handle above our heads was the way forward, and I was right! I must’ve made nearly 100metres hanging on, bouncing around but managing to take gulps of air as the rooster tail jetted over my head leaving me an air pocket! All I’ll say is that my shoulders hurt on Monday.
The girls, Louise, Louise, Ali and Jo came down at about 3pm bearing food and drinks (we hadn’t exactly planned and thought things through before we left hazily at 9am) so Si gave me a shoulder ride off the boat, whilst I was fully clothed to the shore. Thankfully I made it there still dry. Some more messing around, wakeboarding and wakeskating we headed back to the cottage after bringing the boat back into the marina for a barbeque. The day had brightened and warmed up throughout the afternoon, so the cold beers, homemade bbq’d burgers and salad went down well, along with the numerous applications of aftersun and aloe vera gel. Can’t wait till this time next year again, back to the cottage for your birthday Rich?
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