Wednesday 22 July- Windsurf ***** - The Manor, Felixstowe – sunny and hot.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7m.

Foil – 17.51 knot max, 15.72 knot ave ., 8.99 knot hour, 15.04 knot mile, 47.25 km., 8.70 knot alpha.

What an amazing couple of days away visiting our Grandson Arlo in Surrey, the first time Mag and I have seen him face to face since 16th February and to first nights in the van since March 16th!!!! We got back at 10.15 last night, checked the forecast and discovered after a cloudy start the wind was supposed to pick up as the sun appears in the afternoon! So back to my exercises in the garden then lunch and I head down to The Manor just after two as the sun comes out and the southerly wind picks up to around 15 knots:) I actually manage to get a double parking spot close to the steps, always a result on a sunny day! Andy M turns up and we check the conditions, the tide has only just turned, being high it looked quite lumpy but we both set up our foils giving the wind a chance to settle. We shortie on I decide on my 7m while Andy goes with 6.6 and hope they are big enough? While Andy adjusts his sail, I set off the beach, bear off really broad and am soon up and flying in my favourite direction downwind. You could actually sail really close to the beach, great for showing off to the people on the beach while playing with the swell. The beauty of this direction is it really smooths the sea out which is actually quite big! At The Fludgers I pass the A frame groynes and get through the very lumpy water at Jacobs Ladder, I then continue onto The Dip but there is no one out there at the moment! I then beat out to towards the red and white bouy where the sea is pretty big! After tacking I beat nearly back to the River Orwell, I am not as good going upwind especially in a big sea as you have to keep forever moving to quite the board flying and out of the water! At the moment I am happy enough to sail quite low just bouncing off the wave tops as I get the feel of the new board which I absolutely love:) I had such a great time sailing downwind I did it four times, actually going to  The Dip three times where I spotted Ed Swain out as well as several kiters! The 7m sail was pretty spot on for most of the session, there were a few lulls not helped a couple of times when I was quite close to the shore so couldn’t bear off to get flying! In the end I was out for nearly three hours in lovely sunshine covering 30 miles, windsurfing just doesn’t get better than this, absolutely loving the foiling and there is no way you could have sailed todays angles both up and downwind in the given wind strength! I did go in a few times but I am getting the feel for the new board, at the moment I am just using the front footstrap which works OK at the moment!

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