Tuesday 17th October - Windsurf *** River Orwell at Levington – sunny periods and very mild.

Foil – 17.69 knot max, 16.80 knot ave ., 9.75 knot hour, 15.29 knot mile, 37.86 km., 14.67 knot alpha (PB).

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

Fin – 24.22 knot max, 21.69 knot ave ., 1.83 knot hour, 17.34 knot mile , 10.10 km ., 12.50 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m and 30 fin.

Today is the first day of a couple of windy and very mild days, it got to a balmy 20 degrees even if today for the most part was cloudy! Sadly, from Thursday the wind is continuing but switching to the north with the temperature set to struggle to reach double figures, that will be a bit of a shock to the system! With a SW forecast for today gusting to 30 knots and high water at 11.45 I decided to had over to the River Orwell for a foiling session to again hopefully work on my gybes which are coming along slowly. So, after taking our two lovely cats to the vets first thing I headed over to the Marina arriving before ten with Michael Galbraith nearly ready, keen to try out his new smaller wings for his Severne foil with a 5.5 sail. I quickly set up my foil board as there was plenty of water and took a chance with my rotational Thunderbird 6.5 using my smaller boom to make things as light as possible. Wetsuit on I set off down river and struggled to get flying to start with the winds being pretty light with a few gusts coming through. Michael was closer to Felixstowe where it looked windier. I had a few flying runs across the corner with some OK gybes and then the wind picked up so I could sail nearly up to Pin Mill, when I say pick up it must have been gusting over 30 knots with some really solid gusts making it very difficult to fly level with sheeting in next to impossible so going fast was pretty much out of the question. We both headed in to see if this would blow through, I quicky set up my 115 lt. fin board but only had a couple of runs before it eased back so we returned to the foil. The wind was probably blowing WSW which is not the best direction here as it seems to make it very gusty and also chop the river up especially when the tide turned! I continued to foil beating up towards Pin Mill as having some interesting downwind runs not sheeted in at all and 4.7 would have been a better sail choice but as the tide had turned it was not worth rigging again. Michael called it a day after covering 30 n/miles, I stayed out a little longer before heading in just as a Southend sailor down at the marina to get his 50’ yacht was heading out on a wave board and 5.2m, he was a good sailor too, jumping and gybing but did not stay out long due to the poor gusty conditions! With my fin board still on the beach I decided to have a few runs and got my fastest sped of the day breaking 24 knots twice but it was not much fun in the gusty wind with the river now very lumpy so I decided to call it a day. So, an interesting session fighting some huge gusts with a sail way too big, but nothing you rigged today would have been right, the big plus being I got my best ever foiling alpha, slowly creeping up:) Tomorrow is looking windy again so will head to Point Clear in search of some flat water hoping the thunderstorms and rain miss us! So after a top shower I was home early enough to visit an old friend this afternoon with Mag for a chat which included a cuppa and homemade cake:)

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