The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 5 letter word SAND YACHT
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
S
A
N
D
Y
A
C
H
T
More clues leading to the result SAND YACHT
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "I visited the Strand; it blew me away" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case i visited the strand; it blew me away = sand yacht.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.