Saturday 13th – windsurf ** The Dip - Felixstowe – sunny but chilly.

F2 Xantos 295 and 38 cm fin with Tushingham Lightning 7.8 and 6.5.

24.33 knot max, 21.68 knot ave ., 7.81 knot hour, 15.85  knot mile, 23.90 km., 12.89 knot alpha.

The weekend forecast was always on the marginal side, chilly too but as the sun was out, I was keen to make the most of low water so headed down to The Dip at 10.30 and was surprised to get on shore winds from the NE gusting to 26 mph! As it was only 6 degrees, I went for the bigger 133 lt. board and actually rigged 6.5! After finding another prom walker to zip me in my wetsuit and boy do, they struggle!!! and sadly by the time I was ready to setoff the wind had swung cross off and dropped:( Andrew Twinn came down and rigged his 8.2 so I rigged my 7.8 and I have taken my big 310 Xantos off my trailer to make way for my foiling board, I will have to put it back on! The wind came back side-on and increased so I headed out but the wind was very light, sailing out towards the red and white bouy hoping to find some wind further our sadly it got even lighter making turning around a nightmare in the lumpy sea! After uphauling eventually I wobbled back very slowly to the beach and only lost eight groynes downwind:( Lightweight Andrew launched and was planing just so I gave it another go and nearly got in the foot straps once but again the wind was way too light and after falling out to sea and finding it difficult to uphaul I managed to make landfall near the end of the prom a further 11 groynes lost and only 675m from my van!!! I carried the board back then returned for my sail which I de-rigged and walked back for the second time, at this stage I had walked further than I had sailed! I was going to go home but the wind had returned so I rigged the 7.8 again! The wind had gone again, the whole session the wind was all over the place but it looked enough to try for a 20-knot average at last. Sadly by this time we had marginal wind with tide lumping up the sea, remind me never to sail again with wind and tide together as you had to beat both ways just to stay in the same position, totally pointless, if you can’t sail at least one run broad then it is a waste of time!!!! I did enough runs for the 20 knot average getting a couple of 24 knot peaks bearing off as much as I dared and even made a few groynes upwind but it was very cold on the hands despite the bright sunshine and I only gybed out as I didn’t want to lose ground so came ashore a lot to warm my hands! So, in the end it was a crap session, perhaps I would have had a better sail at Wrabness on the Stour?

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