Saturday 31st October - Windsurf **** - River Orwell at Levington – mainly cloudy.

 Foil – 18.54 knot max, 17.41 knot ave ., 7.90 knot hour, 13.24 knot mile, 18.50 km ., 11.98 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Storm 5.2m.

What a month October has been it’s now 18 sessions covering 812 km (504 miles) 13 on the foil and 7 on the fin. Was keen to get out again today in the morning before the big winds and rain arrived so headed over to Levington Marina arriving around 9 and sadly the inconsiderate marina dredger workers had blocked the entrance to our car park so you had to walk a bit further today, really no need to do this as they are not even working over the weekend!!!! Had no plans on what to do today foil or fin, in fact it looked too light to fin so I set up my foil board by which time Michael and Robert had arrived along with the wind! Michael was keen to try his spanky new bright red Severne foil so rigged his 4.2 while I went for 5.2 by far the smallest sail I have ever used for foiling! I went to rig it on my very old 4m sdm mast only to discover the top section had split so could not use it. Lucky for me it had an adjustable head so I could use a 4.30 mast! I now need a 4.60, 4.30 and 4.00 mast as well as a new pair of winter boots as they are full of holes:( Poor old pension will be taking a real bashing, talking about living beyond our means:) I was a bit nervous heading out with such small kit but I need not have worried and for about 40 minutes it was really good with some big gusts coming through but such great fun:) As for gybing it was great trying to improve my technique, the small sail making it so much easier, I did end up in the water a few times but am improving slowly but I am not overly bothered as I have been windsurfing for 38 years and still can’t gybe my fin board:) Michael and I beat a little way towards the docks while Robert stayed closer to the marina, he is doing great and credit to him for being out on his foil in 30 knot gusts with his 4.5! I tried some faster runs but it did not end up well a couple of times, I must learn to sail broad fast but the old sailor on board is a little scared of going too fast! We had to avoid the coaster heading to Ipswich and then the wind went silly, thank goodness we were not too far down the river as it was now next to impossible to sail. Luckily, I managed to wobble back and was pleased to get back, a big thankyou to Michael for helping get my gear in. So only a short session today but so good to be out flying in big winds with a small sail and another top shower and discovered they have a heated seat too!

Looking like a session at Point Clear tomorrow and was wondering if anyone has an old sdm 4m mast in their garage I can borrow until I can get a new one?

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