Saturday 29th December – windsurf *** Levington – cloudy.

F2 Xantos 295 with Tushingham Lightning 7m and 38 cm fin.

25.38 knot max., 23.04 knot ave ., 8.30 knot hour, 15.02  knot mile, 31.20 km., 16.64 knot alpha.

After a top Christmas away in Liverpool with family and friends we arrived back in Felixstowe yesterday after a lovely walk in the Peak District in time hopefully for some wind today. With a westerly of 15/20 forecast and with low water at Harwich at 10.23 and not wanting to travel to West Mersea I decided to take the option closer to home so when the wind started to fill in, I hitched up the trailer and headed over to Levington Marina for the 12th time this year. I had to call off a lunch date with some friends in Felixstowe but Mag went and we all meet up later for tea:) Arriving at 10.15 with the tide at low there didn’t seem much wind so I took a few pics before deciding to give it a try. I took off the 295, 133 litre Xantos with the aim of rigging the 7.8 but on taking it to the little beach by the marina entrance the wind was now gusting to 23 mph so I went with the 7m Lightning instead. By the time I had my wetsuit on and found a birdwatcher to do the zip up the wind as usual had dropped off but I decided to try anyway as the River Orwell looked super flat at low water. My next problem was getting in the marina entrance channel as I had to cross a few metres of mud and was soon up to my thighs!!! For a minute I thought I was going to get stuck but I managed to crawl out and was soon sailing away but sadly I was way underpowered and hardly planed at all:( With the tide not moving for ages I was left floundering across the river looking for the odd gust thinking the day was going to be a complete washout! After nearly an hour I stopped in the shallow water and a seal popped up and we spent ages watching each other, the highlight of the day:) Then the tide started coming in the wind started to fill in even if a bit up and down, chopping up a little too! I soon hit 24 knots but it took a while to get a 20-knot average. Then I got a run of better gusts and upped the average to 23 knots and was getting some nice gybes in too. If you ran out of wind at each side you could hop off and turn in the shallow water keeping you much warmer, which was not a big problem with an air temperature of 12 degrees:) With the wind going even more patchy and enough water to return to the van without walking through mud I decided to call it a day after nearly two hours, so not too bad for my 83rd session of the year:)

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.squirrell.1/media_set?set=a.10214452098068901&type=3

http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/

It looks like this is going to be my last session of 2018 so its time for the year’s stats, there a lot being retired now I must have too much time on my hands!

I have windsurfed 83 times (3 more than last year) at 16 different venues covering 3538.60 km. that’s 2198.78 miles!

The Dip, Felixstowe (UK)                              25 sessions

The Manor, Felixstowe (UK)                           7

Levington (UK)                                              12

Point Clear (UK)                                            10

Bradfield  (UK)                                                7

West Mersea (UK)                                          3

Southend  (UK)                                              2

Portland  (UK)                                                1

Hamworthy  (UK)                                            1

Tanners Lane (UK)                                         3

Llanfairfechan (UK)                                        5

La Franqui (France)                                       2   

Port la Nautique (France)                               1

Almerimar (Spain)                                          1 

Los Narejos (Spain)                                       1

Platja de Trabucador (Spain)                         2

You thought this was the end, wrong now a list of kit used!!!

Boards.

Fanatic Cat                                                     6

F2 Xantos 310                                              22

F2 Xantos 295                                              22

F2 Ride 282                                                  31  (my favourite board now)

F2 Ride 277                                                    4

F2 264 Wave                                                  2

Fanatic Falcon 80                                           3

F2 Stoke 117                                                  5

Sails.

Tushingham Lightning  9.4                             2

Tushingham Lightning  8.5                           26

Tushingham Lightning 7.8                            16

Tushingham Lightning 7                               18

Tushingham Lightning 6.5                             11

Tushingham X-15 7                                        5

Tushingham X-15 6.4                                     1

Tushingham X-15 5.8                                     9

Tushingham Vulcan 6                                     1

Tushingham Storm 5.2                                   3

Haish Nala 4.25                                              1

As you can see, I don’t do a lot of small kit sailing as I prefer bigger kit and cruising windsurfing hunting out flatter water venues where possible and wind here on the East coast can on average be lighter than in the South and west but I don’t mind especially as my favourite set up is the 282 with 7m. It’s only been an average year for speed only breaking 30 knots 7 times but I did manage to get second in the UK on the UK Team Challenge sight:)

So, I am lucky to have the time to windsurf during the week it has been a good year, the weekend sailors were sadly not so lucky:(

Lastly, I would like to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and windy 2019!!!