Wednesday 17th August - Windsurf **** - River Stour at Wrabness – sunshine and heavy rain.

 Foil – 19.15 knot max, 17.79 knot ave., 13.15 knot hour, 16.11 knot mile, 53.20 km., 14.35 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and Evolution Freeride foil with a Sailworks Retro 7.5.

Walk **** -Wrabness circuit

With a solid breeze of 18 knots from the NE forecast but with a thunder storm warning in place making the air very unstable it was risky day for windsurfing. I might have been tempted by The Dip in Felixstowe in the morning to make the most of low water but the wind was still light so decided to head over to the River Stour at Wrabness, with high water at 4.30 I was hoping to get out around one. This left me time to do my exercises, then Mag made a yummy pasta salad and we set off for Essex with still no rain but some menacing dark clouds. On reaching Mistley the rain here was torrential with the drains struggling to cope but it was very localised! We parked with no problems at 12.15 and decided to go and check the conditions with Mag, walking over the sea wall with the Stour looking fantastic as the dark storm clouds headed up river. The wind was still light and the tide low so we decided to go for a walk along the beach, past the sand martins in the small cliff to the first row of wooden beach bungalows with the impressive Holbrook school over on the Suffolk side! I got some nice pics as we ambled along enjoying the views, the sun even managed to come out, we then scrambled up the steep cliff heading inland to the long straight footpath running past the woodland burial area. This path is lovely being a complete arch made up of old hedgerows which comes out near our van, a great start to the day.

Windsurf **** Wrabness

After the lovely walk I decided to take a chance and set up my foil and rig my 7.5 while Mag walked down the lane collecting blackberries. Then after some pasta I headed to the beach to launch just as it started to rain which pretty much killed what little wind there was! I waded in deep enough to foil and waited for the rain to pass before setting off across the Stour, if anything the wind got lighter the further, I went across the river. After a couple of floundering runs as if by magic, the wind turned more northerly and picked up with the rain arriving. It was a pretty surreal thing to be flying up past Bradfield in the rain, hardly being able to see anything! I had a few flying runs as the rain eased but there had been enough to tempt Neil Hurrell to launch from Bradfield followed by Simon Chippington later. The wind then dropped down again and I started to beat back slowly to Wrabness against the tide. It was at this point I nearly called it a day and was about to head in when a few gusts started to come through from the NE which made me stay out, lucky I did as the Stour then produced another top foiling session doing loads of long diagonal runs across the river with my big sail gybing coming on really well today, in fact I was on the water for 3 hours 30 minutes at least and didn’t fall in once:) There were times when 6.5 would have been enough but I am loving the old 2001 Sailworks Retro 7.5 I bought recently especially as it sets on my smaller narrow boom which makes it feel light in the hands! I pretty much had this end of the river all to myself but was joined for a few runs by Chippers on his race foil set-up. Nothing overly fast today as I was mainly tight reaching but did a few deep downwind runs and with the tide now turned I decided to head back to meet up with Mag who was on the sea wall seeing if I was still alive as I had been gone for so long and could not believe the time, it was 5.55! Back to the van for a cuppa, fish the pasta and have a chat, Mag really enjoyed her afternoon too walking to the Nature reserve collecting a tube of blackberries while watching me in the middle of the river in the rain thinking I must be nuts! Then pack and the slow drive home arriving knackered at 7.30, great day with some interesting weather but still no rain of any note in Felixstowe with our water butts still empty:(

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