Monday, August 04, 2008

Grass yachting

After summer school at the University of Sussex, Brighton, Clare picked me up and we moved on to Hastings to visit her niece. Late on Saturday afternoon we were walking along the front at Bexhill-on-Sea in blustery conditions when we saw a strange, kite-driven machine being driven on a long meadow, next to the sea.

As we arrived and showed an interest, the biker who was driving it invited Clare for a ride. "It accelerates like a rocket when I engage the kite!" he warned her. And indeed, it shot away, but the real cleverness was that he could tack back. Apparently he's been doing this for eight years.

Clare ready to go



They're away!


And this is what I saw as they came back.