Sunday 13th October – Windsurf **** - River Orwell – Levington – cloudy with showers.

Starboard Formula and Slingshot Hover Glide F/Wind with Tushingham Lightning 7.

Foil – 17.55 knot max., 16.42 knot ave., 5.47 knot hour, 13.03 knot mile, 19.00 km., 8.03 knot alpha.

After being stuck in all day yesterday because of yet more rain and with a plasterer in doing our hall I was keen to get out on the water today. With a good forecast, SW 20 to 40 I didn’t fancy a trip to The Dip as it was approaching high, not a great time to sail at Felixstowe so I headed over to the River Orwell at Levington hoping to get a foil as things have been moving along nicely in that direction and I wanted to get out before the rain arrived. I arrived at the Marina at 9.15 and had a word with windsurfers Mark Swain and Peter Edmunds who were doing some yacht racing, also the red sailed squibs were preparing to leave the marina to race also, which is always nice to see:) Parking in my usual position I took some pics of Swainy and Pete heading out into the onshore wind gusting to 25 mph which I thought would be too much for me to foil so I took my F2 Zantos 295 to the beach and rigged my 7m. By the time I was ready to set off the wind had eased so I quickly set up my foil and was soon on the water. I sailed up towards Pin Mill but the wind was particularly light so I headed back towards the bay and soon found some wind and was up and flying:) SW is a great direction here and if you get lucky with the gusts you can sail 2/3 miles runs in super flat water especially as the tide was still coming in, the only problem with that is its wind with tide which makes it harder to get up when using a smaller sail. I am flying well in the gusts mainly with only my front foot in the strap and out of the harness lines, sailing both upwind and down. There was the usual slogging about waiting for a gust but that is the joy of river sailing but when the wind was up, I got some really long runs. I spotted another windsurfer launching and discovered it was Mark Davis also foiling and he was flying really well, probably getting more air that me being a lightweight with a similar size sail! This was one of my better sessions and it took me nearly three hours before I took a dip in the water and only when the wind was gusting to 25 knots! While Mark headed back to switch to a fin, I continued to foil for a couple more full-on runs which was great fun but with the tide now turned and the gusts getting stronger and with the river chopping up it was time to swop to my fin.

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7.m.

Fin – 25.41 knot max., 23.59 knot ave., 0.00 knot hour, 20.41 knot mile, 26.40 km., 15.25 knot alpha.

 Another sailor who I had not met before, a John from Woodbridge, his first visit here was heading out with 7.2 on his Goya Bolt 135. I then enjoyed five pretty full-on runs from Levington Bay 2 miles up towards Pin Mill. It was very lumpy and windy in the bay but got smoother further up the river and soon got a 20+ average peaking at 25 knots, not an overly fast direction considering it was gusting to nearly 30 knots now but great fun despite the light showers! With the tide dropping the wind eased so I headed back having been on the water approaching 4 hours. So, a nice day on the water even if the weather was miserable, this is a nice venue especially now winter is drawing near. There is even a tape to clean your wetsuit/foil etc. I had a job to tie my foil board on the trailer in the increased wind but managed in the end getting home at 4 with the plasterer long gone and he had done a really good job and Mag had been super busy preparing our back room to decorate! Looks like more rain and light winds tomorrow but more wind coming then, at least it gives me a chance to dry my wetsuit!

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