Friday 29th May - Windsurf ***** - River Stour Bradfield – sunny and warm!
F2 Zantos 310 with 44 fin and Tushingham Lightning 8.5.
Fin – 22.10 knot max, 20.30 knot ave., 14.58 knot hour, 38.20 km., 14.40 knot alpha.
The warm sunshine and easterly wind keep on coming, this is the second day with three more to come! With a late afternoon high water at Bradfield we could have a nice morning at home doing our exercises and having a lovely video call from Grandson Arlo on his 3rd Birthday:) So with lunch and tea packed we again head over to the lovely River Stour being first to arrive quickly followed by two Hurrells Neil and Craig. We have our yummy salad as the tide comes in and it is a fraction windier than yesterday. I decide to rig 8.5 and take a fin board out for an hour or so I don’t have to walk so far out to reach deep water on the foil! I managed to get on the water first just, quickly followed by Craig and Neil all on fins. It is much harder work here on a fin board especially when are underpowered and as the wind was with the tide getting upwind was painfully slow, in fact I had several runs across the river before I made any progress upwind! Andy was now out foiling on 7.3 and was flying on the beat and soon disappeared to Shotley! I was getting on better now as the wind filled in and finally made it to Wrabness and was having some nice runs across the much smoother Holbrook bay and I can even manage to gybe the big board. Then over by Holbrook School something went slack and I looked down and my harness hook had broken:( So I missed my best chance of some faster speeds was lost as I had to take it easy back so not to completely break the hook! There were loads here now with a good mix of fin and foil so I quickly set up my foil after one and a half hours on the fin.
Starboard Formula and Slingshot Hover Glide F/Wind with Tushingham Lightning 7.8.
Foil – 17.10 knot max, 15.94 knot ave ., 10.56 knot hour, 12.75 knot mile, 31.30 km., 11.23 knot alpha
So with the foil board on the beach I had to make up my mind whether to use my 8.5 but it looked a bit breezy for that so rigged my 7.8 which turned out perfect for most of the session:) I just love the foil, the beat which took 8/10 tacks to reach Wrabness I made in just two:) I love the feeling of having a bigger sail when foiling as you can really power upwind and I am feeling comfortable in both straps, hooked in too with the same length lines as when on the fin! Sadly, the wind went a little patchy in the middle of Holbrook bay and I didn’t want to be stuck here with the tide now going out. So, I headed back not feeling as comfortable as usual as normal going broad but I was a little underpowered! The wind returned when I got level with the car park and did several runs just back and forth, trying to go fast broad or just playing with the swell in fact it was so good I found it hard to stop. I was getting knackered so had to call it a day and by the time I had got both my boards and rigs back to the van it was gone seven!!! Out of my shorty Mag and I then enjoyed delicious tomato tart and salad followed by the last of Arlo’s birthday cake while watching everyone pack up or relax with a beer in the fantastic weather. A few mates even came over for a chat and then I had to de-rig two sails, load the trailer by which time we were last there. There was a road closure at Manningtree and we had to divert via Dedham which was heaving despite being 9 o clock, it put under 5 miles to our journey home, ending two perfect windsurfing days in a row with more to come, that is if the poor old body can take it, I think the plan is to go to The Dip tomorrow for some sea foiling, if I can find a harness to borrow.
PS – a big thankyou to Stuart Fork for lending me a harness so I could go foiling!
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