Monday 11th November – Windsurf ** - River Orwell - Levington – sunny periods.

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

Fin – 28.76 knot max., 26.30 knot ave., 8.76 knot hour, 16.49 knot mile, 17.0 km., 16.45 knot Alpha.

Was keen to get out windsurfing for my first session in November and haven’t been on the water since the 30th of October but although a good WNW wind was forecast it came with rain and a rather chilly 8 degrees:( With a 10.52 high today I really needed to get to Levington Marina early but on waking we had heavy rain making it unwelcoming and nearly gave it a miss. Then on having breakfast the rain stopped so I quickly hitched the trailer and set off at 10 hoping to get a few runs in before the tide turned! Not surprising I had the river all to myself but at least it wasn’t raining. The tide was well high so I needed to get out as quickly as possible and with the wind WNW slightly cross off it was difficult to gauge the wind but it looked breezy in the middle of the river so took a chance with my 7m for the 133lt Xantos which proved right for the short session! With no one about to zip me in my full winter suit I went with my Autumn one but added hat and gloves. With the tide just about to turn I didn’t want to head downwind so stayed in front of the launch site. I had several runs across the river with some nice gybes before my hands started to get cold and boom grip is a pain with gloves on so I returned to warm up having made 16 knot max. I then just did a couple of runs across each time stopping to recover my grip! Getting upwind was not easy with the wind patchy and the tide flowing but was surprised to get a couple of 28 knot runs which was OK in the lumpy water. With the water dropping I decided I had had enough after only an hour so decided to call it a day. In the end I was pleased my the top speed and average but it is certainly not much fun sailing in the cold:( It is looking breezy tomorrow and Point Clear would be OK but I don’t think it is worth the 80 mile round trip when the temperature is struggling to 8 degrees so if I go it will be back to Levington for another short session!

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