I've had friends staying for 10 days so it's been a gastronomic tour of the County, with a fair bit of sandyachting thrown in. We've had seven or eight of stunning sunny weather here in Pembrokeshire, caused by a ruddy great high over Scandinavia, so the winds have been light and from the east. The odd grey day over Easter coincided with stronger winds, still from the east, so the place to be has been Pendine - and that's where we've been.

We could have been on the south end of Cefn Sidan, but the outrageous ban remains in place - seven months now - and whilst a few of us continue to flout the ban at every available opportunity, the circumstances are not ideal for relaxed sailing with one's friends! I wish I could report that something is being done to get the ban lifted, but sadly I can't.

From Pendine one can look across to the "promised land" at Cefn, where nothing is allowed, in stark contrast to Pendine where absolutely anything goes. The "in" thing these days is to buy your kids mini motorbikes, with two, three or four wheels, and let 'em rip on Pendine, if they're not already enjoying driving lessons in the family saloon.

Blimey, last weekend there was a car rally taking place in the military base in the dunes which involved the rally cars driving the full length of the beach to get back to the start again. The rally cars weren't the problem - we were treated all afternoon to this wonderful display of exotic machinery, from the sublime to the ridiculous, driving down the beach at sensible speeds - it was the spectators who were going bananas, thrashing their cars around and going in for wild spins - and it is a bit disconcerting to have a car come slewing towards you when there's the chance the driver's lost it completely. It certainly adds to a day's excitement!

We did four consecutive days sailing on Pendine over Easter, and I'll bore you with the lot of 'em!

On Good Friday I'd arranged to meet a potential customer for our wonderful Potty miniyachts, and it was blowing nicely at my place when we set off. Sadly the beach was totally devoid of wind when we arrived, so we dawdled down the beach in the sunshine, marvelling at the number of parakarters enjoying the sunshine.

Pendine's the place for anything these days, and the parakarters have rightly decided it's the place for them. There's a big group of up to 60 who congregate a couple of miles down the beach every weekend, and there's also umpteen other smaller groups or individuals who set up separately on the beach too, so there'll be anywhere between 30 and 60 buggies out every Sat and Sun. Roughly a quarter of that lot will also have "mountain boards" - 3 or 4-foot long skateboards - on which you stand / wobble wildly while trying to control your kite. It's another new craze that seems to be hitting the beaches with a vengeance. It's particularly popular with disillusioned kite surfers, who hoist 12 sq m horseshoe-shaped monster kites, hop on a mountain-board for the shortest of wobbles before getting someone to drive them to the hospital anyway.

Friday was a day for slobbing about in the sunshine whilst waiting for the wind to kick in. No sooner had we parked up beyond all the parakarters than my customers arrived. Tony, an ex-pilot with an extensive toy cupboard that lacked a miniyacht, his wife, Gail, and son, Rob, who's in his last year of a law degree at Swansea, handy for the beaches on the Gower.

They were all into all manner of sports, but Gail had gone off ski-ing after an amazing experience that's worth mentioning. She'd been dragged off to the slopes and was having her first lesson when she slid off downhill, and went faster and faster until she got to the bottom going at one heck of a pace, where she shot over a bridge, took off and landed in a river. They duly hauled her out and she was OK. They asked her why she hadn't stopped and she pointed out that the instructor hadn't taught 'em that bit yet. Suffice to say I really felt she'd love the minis!

Slowly but surely the wind arrived, in bouts of 10 minutes or so at a time, from directions that were totally opposite - 10 mins of SW, 10 mins of flat calm, then 10 mins of NE - so they all had the chance to have a go under light conditions, then at last the wind got it's act together and became a steady NE, Force 4, enough to get 'em moving properly.

I must confess that I do enjoy flogging our Potties, particularly when conditions are perfect and everything's right. The last half hour before they had to go was one of those moments that are worth savouring, when all three of them were happily charging around in the sunshine, laughing away....

So we had to go back to Pendine on Saturday to deliver a shiny new one. This time there was no doubt at all about the wind, a good NE, Force 6, that grew stronger throughout the afternoon until the whole beach was drifting sand.

Tony arrived on his own, as it had been pretty wild on the Gower that morning, but he was soon getting to grips with it. Dave Shaw came along with yet another interesting variation on the theme for testing, so we all gave that a good thrasharound, and a thoroughly fine time was had by all in the drifting sand and the sunshine.

A quirk of a stiff NE is that it's blowing off the land and effectively blows the tide out, leaving a nice dry beach. Normally such conditions result in horrendous ripples or moon country, but not so on Saturday... there's a bank that gets exposed at the widest point of the beach, say three miles down, and it's normally far too wet and unpleasant to get to, and even then it's soft, but the beach dried out right to the bank and for once it was sailable. It was a lovely day's sailing, arguably a tad too windy - that drifting sand - but what a day!

Sunday brought a lovely steady Force 5 easterly, and no customers were around, so it was a day for some serious sailing pottering off in to the distance, seeing where you can go, general exploration of available banks, a tootle up the estuary perchance, that sort of thing.

Conditions looked exquisite, so Guy Johnson joined us arriving just as we were rigging him a Potty, beyond the parakarters. When we drove on to the beach, we were shocked. What the hell had happened to it? The wind hadn't changed, so why the heck were we looking at a wet rippled mess?

There was a dry strip of flat sand 50 to 100m wide, soft towards the dunes, but the rest of the beach was too rippled or wet to even think about. Yuk. We'd been spoiled the previous day - the beach should have been in this condition for ages given the weeks of easterlies - and we'd been lucky. Our only option was to try the eastern end of the beach, where there's a large "pan" area that's sometimes superb - as it was the day before according to Dave who'd checked it out after we'd left him for a boat trip round the islands that got a little delayed and culminated in us belting up the Haven waterway long after dark, past the oil refineries, jetties, etc but that's another story entirely.

So, we tacked our way east then headed out and followed the bank back round behind the Ministry of Defence's High Explosive Pit - the name itself is enough of a deterrent so we didn't go trespassing - and enjoyed some hilarious tacking along the side of a gulley - one heck of a slope to it, but there was enough wind to blow you uphill on the hundreds of short quick tacks that were needed to make progress - then it was off round and up the Laugharne Estaury at the eastern end of the beach, then an exploration of the banks out towards Cefn, all in a splendid steady Force 5 easterly.

Yes, the beach was pretty bloody ripply, but somehow that doesn't seem to matter when you're off exploring and there's plenty of wind to keep you going. Three hours later we arrived back at the van, packed up and headed west. The tide wasn't even coming in and the sun wasn't thinking about setting, but we were all aware that we'd had one of those special days that will stick in the mind for years.

So we simply had to do it all again on Bank Holiday Easter Monday. The wind was forecast to be "cyclonic, 4 or 5, 6 earlier" ie Now... so off we went, in the vague hope of a repeat of the previous day. "Cyclonic" is always ominous, but I had high hopes of the "6" and we ended up with a southerly, Force 3 or a 4 at best. As it was straight off the sea we could at least jolly along without much effort, but going out on to the ripples was not an option as the wind wasn't enough to keep you going.

The east end of the beach was too ripply or soft, so we were limited to reaching back and fore on the 50m or so of dry flat beach. The day was a bit grey weatherwise, which kept the holidaying hordes at bay, so we were able to sail back to the village for choc ices and flamboyant turns on the slipway - a first for a Bank Holiday! We did try to get out to the banks at the eastern end, but the wind simply wasn't up to it. Four days of excellent sailing - all on the same beach, but with totally different conditions each day. Wonderful. Excellent.

All the sailing was on minis - potties of course - but the five we had out were all different, and a spot of explanation is called for.

The Army and a few Activity Centres have been nagging us for ages to make a rigid version without the spring on the grounds that they'll never need to take 'em apart and pop 'em in the back of a Ford Fiesta which is fair comment indeed, duly noted at this end and relayed to Whiskers (Dave Shaw), who last autumn made yet another prototype where absolutely everything was adjustable, and I mean everything, and over the winter we've come up with three alternative rigid versions - (1) standard length, (2) 4" longer, and (3) 8" longer, the latter being hopeless for anyone under 6'. I'm 6'5", so the 8" longer version happens to fit me like a glove, can't think why.

Another interesting variation has involved making the footpedals detachable and screwing them in to the ends of the front wheel spindle, thereby moving the pilot's feet forwards by 8", making the standard Potty that much more comfortable for the 6'5" pilot ... and that too was on the beach, along with a standard version, and Dave's latest variation, which we won't mention just now but was fun while it lasted. So that was 6six different Potty versions out sailing at once... and each and every one of them handled like a dream.

All the winter's testing with the "adjustable" has certainly been worthwhile and I reckon the rigid version should go down well with both the Army and the Activity Centres. Meanwhile I've got two standard car-boot Potties in stock... shiny, new and unused... complete and ready to sail.. and one heck of a demo fleet!

So there it is - all's well at this end ! Whilst I've been typing this, Angus from the "Dru" (that infamous west Wales establisment and eatery, the Druidstone) and his mate have taken a couple of Potties down to Newgale, in a light easterly, and seem to have had fun, a few capsizes, the odd foray out to sea, the usual... should've joined 'em for a beer but time seems to have passed and my typing's so damn slow .

This weekend coming (April 26th) Whiskers and I are due for a trespass over at Cefn, then on Wednesday I tootle gently up to Hoylake for an evening in the Plasterers Arms with Chris Wright, prior to a sleepless night in the Hoylake clubhouse prior to a 5am start and a dash to the ferry at Holyhead on Thurs morning to Dublin, a drive across Ireland, with an option on a leisurely lunch en route, to Brandon arriving late Thurs afternoon, possibly via Inch for a quick hour's sailing, sort out a B&B, a bite perchance, a creamy pint (just one or two), another? Well, whyever not, with the vague hope of an early night and a full day's sailing on the Friday before the Irish arrive in force and all plans become fluid. This year we're only taking miniyachts to Ireland, thereby dispensing with Chris's trailer, so here's hoping the wind blows.

Our Irish adventure ends with the Hoylake regatta the following weekend, where we'll rig our c5s and go racing.

Cheers

Andy K445