Monday 17th February – Windsurf *** - River Orwell – Levington - mainly cloudy.

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 6.5m.

Fin – 28.88 knot max., 26.47 knot ave., 12.54 knot hour, 19.05 knot mile, 39.90 km., 17.68 knot Alpha.

After a pretty foil weekend with Storm Denis delivering some wet and windy weather but nowhere near as bad as a lot of other areas in the UK got with some really bad flooding, I was just pleased we had our lovely Grandson Arlo staying and had a wonderful weekend:) I was keen to make the most of the tail end of the storm with yet another trip over to my go to winter venue, Levington. With low water around midday I was in no hurry to get to the marina as I like to sail with the tide coming in. The day started well with wall to wall sunshine so I did my exercises first, had breakfast, made a sandwich and set off. I again had the whole river to myself as I arrived at the marina around midday. The tide was low but you can sail out of the entrance even with the wind coming from the WSW and gusting to 30 mph! I set up my 133 lt. Zantos again first to see what the wind was doing; I nearly rigged my 5.8 but the wind seemed to drop so I took a chance again with my old Lightning 6.5. I didn’t have to walk far to find someone to zip me into my wetsuit and I was soon heading out as it clouded over:( WSW is not one thing or anther with a true west or South West being much better but I could do mile runs diagonally across to Trimley lagoon. The were some big 30 knot gusts but the wind was particularly patchy and again the water state was disappointing being lumpy making going fast challenging! Again, I went for an hour but needed gloves today to keep my hands warm but there were too many holes for a good time. The wind switched a fraction and I managed a couple of runs down to Felixstowe docks and had one OK reach back. With wind over tide you were sailing into steep chop on the bend so after a couple of hours pretty much none stop, I decided to call it a day. This is my 14th session of the year, twice as many as last year but I have a few weeks off now but might be back for a few sessions in late March??? And then again there is always tomorrow for one last windsurf, who knows????

Back at home I fitted to top box ready for our adventures and with Mag collecting 5 k of coal from the beach today I decided to head down to Felixstowe beach and managed 7k and was treated to a lovely rainbow for my efforts:)

PS – I am looking for a reasonably priced second-hand GT-31, can anyone help?

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