SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2002   Today was one of those days I lived a dream. Since living on the east coast of Lincolnshire I have always wanted to landsail to Skegness. It's a dream I've now achieved and it was glorious! I tried doing it 15 years ago but was thwarted by multiple rows of beach groins running the full width of the beach just beyond Sandilands some three miles south towards Skegness. Over the last 10 years the beach groins have been removed and sand pumped onto the top of the beach to protect the sea walls. This sand is more coarse and is soft. The old fine hard sand is still near the low tide line so it has always been a question of waiting for tide and wind conditions to be favourable. Other sandyachters have always mentioned that the east coast of Lincolnshire has over 20 miles good sailable beach. So it happened today and I took advantage of the "window of opportunity". With the forecast for galeforce westerly winds and an outgoing tide over the afternoon I decided to use my Yorker cub with a full windsurf sail. If I was stranded at least the yacht could be collapsed and moved easily. Also it's small and light enough to drag round the outfalls (rivers) that dot the beach. I walked the yacht out from my garden in Victoria Road up on to the beach then took 20 minutes to rig as the wind was a gusty 30mph. Pieces of string were ripped from your hands and catching the ends with a flapping sail was not easy. Finally rigged with the GPS, spare batteries, a bar of chocolate, mobile phone and emergency tool kit in the drysuit it was a quick sail north to near the north end where we normally sail and then turn south towards Skegness. I did this to make sure that the yacht could sail well in both directions of the beach as the windsurf sail does not point too well. I was using just one pulley and no rachet as the wind was blowing from the land over the dunes, sea wall and down onto the beach. This made the wind very gusty. The wind would be 10mph, the next second gust to over 30mph. Setting off on the journey I made good progress a mile south to the first obstacle, Trusthorpe outfall, a concrete tunnel half buried in the beach. I was able to sail up the beach and sail over the top and back down to the tide line. Two miles further south I passed Sutton on Sea and Sandilands and left the built-up areas. With nothing to slow the wind that was blowing over open fields then over the sea wall things really started to happen. The yacht was making a good 20mph sailing close to the wind, I was all over the beach being blown about by the gusts which shifted in direction as well. Two near spins and the yacht finally fell apart as I went through a gully and was caught in a gust. The yacht hiked came down in the gully and then took off on the exit of the gully. The windsurf mast jumped out of its socket and fell in a heap. It took me ages to untangle all the ropes and re-rigging in the wind was a struggle. The bottom of the sail was also torn slighty and that slowly ripped off the further I went. Back sailing down the beach it was three miles to Anderby Creek and the next outfall. This was a big one with soft sand covering the tunnel but there was a 25 yard gap between the end of the tunnel and the sea. I waded across in knee high water and discovered the Yorker just about floats as I towed it across. Back on the beach it was another three miles crossing various small gullies and doing a couple of tacks to avoid the long inlets of deep water to Chapel St Leonard's and another outfall. This one was a deep one that had a large channel at the exit of the tunnel. It was too deep to safely wade so it was a walk up the beach and a scrape over the concrete. I then I noticed the front wheel bearings had collapsed, the spindle was rotating on the aluminium spacer. That kept the wheel from fouling the forks and I was able to maintain some sort of steering. The front wheel would occasionally change direction by itself which made for some near misses into the sea. Another 2.5 miles down the beach you come to Ingoldmells, a place where there is about 10,000 caravans. The beach then took a slight arc further south and closer to the wind and got narrow with some of the coarse softer sand mixed in with the old fine sand. Also the beach was wet making it very slow and sticky. Then I found the mud! A large area of it up to 6 inches deep. The only option was to drag the yacht up the beach through the goo and try to run along the sand that bordered it. I was on soft wet sand and found it impossible to get started as the yacht sank in the wet. Finally got going but needed 6 tacks to keep it rolling and there was yet another 3.6 miles to Skegness and the pier. The last mile had some old wooden groins which meant I had to sail well out but it was not possible to sail along the tide line for long and six tacks were needed in between the groins to keep up yacht speed but I made it... eventually! Took a quick stop next to the Skegness pier and found the wind dropping. And it was a downwind run back north! With the shelter of the buildings I could only manage a trundle. The wind filled in a little by Ingoldmells then I found the mud again, saw it too late, sailed into it around 25mph getting covered from head to toe. At least I had my visor down on the helmet. I eventually had to walk downwind through 4 inches of the goo to get to the hard stuff again. Further down the beach I washed off the mud courtesy of a pool of water on my route across the banks - the hard bank I was sailing on slowly headed inland and I had to change banks going through a gully of water. I found a couple of "yacht stoppers" in a few places there as well but at least I could see again. As the beach curved back round towards Mablethorpe the wind squared up a little and good fast pace was made as I watched the sun set over the dunes. The front wheel shook and wobbled around but it stayed in one piece till I arrived back in Mablethorpe in near darkness, de-rigged the yacht and walked it back down the "high street" back home. So at least I now know the full length of the coast is sailable - I could have sailed a further 3.5 miles to the end of the beach and a large river. Also I could sail up further north on our normal racing beach that would make a total length of over 22 miles. Today I covered 34 miles and had a top speed of 32mph. Class 5s should manage it well as they are light enough to be dragged over the outfalls. Next time I do the run I hope to have backup and some fellow landsailors. Regards everyone. Gareth K800 MAP of MABLETHOPE COASTLINE [  b a c k   t o   th e   t o p   o f   t h e   p a g e  ] BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS