Tuesday 5th October - Windsurf *** River Orwell at Levington marina– sunny periods.

Foil – 19.11 knot max, 18.28 knot ave ., 9.14 knot hour, 14.74 knot mile, 37.71 km., 14.39 knot alpha (PB).

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

Will the wind ever stop blowing that’s now 11 sessions in the last 13 days with one more day tomorrow so hopefully I can have a Birthday windsurf on the lovely River Stour with several mates going too and the weather is not looking too bad either:) Woke this morning in Felixstowe to strong winds and heavy rain but that front moved away and the wind dropped completely! Then the WSW started to build and with super keen Robert heading over to the River Orwell for some gybe practice I decided to join him. We arrived at the Marina at 9.45 as the front moved away over the docks at Felixstowe leaving us with blue sky. The winds were still fairly light but we set up our foil boards and then with more wind I rigged my 7 while Robert went for 6.5 and we set off out onto the river searching for a gust. WSW is not the best direction here meaning you can’t sail to the docks or up river towards Pin Mill so we had to sail across the corner but it was pretty up and down, gusty as usual 5 knots one minute, 20 the next. I was getting some OK speeds, as for the gybing it is coming along slowly, definitely not helped by my heavy Tushingham twin cam lightning which I used to really love but it is knackered as are most of my sails, maybe its time for a set of fin/foil sails but sadly funds don’t stretch that far:( I ended up getting a PB alpha of 14.39, actually breaking 14 knots 3 times. Robert is also improving his gybing but we both turned the air a few times after taking several tumbles and uphauling the heavy sail was starting to takes its toll especially after using my 5.2 for foiling yesterday, that’s so light! With the tide now turned and a big black cloud coming it was time to call it a day and head for home but not before warming up in the great showers at the Marina:)

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