Sunday 13th September - Windsurf ***** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny and warm.

Foil – 18.27 knot max, 16.65 knot ave ., 11.39 knot hour, 14.82 knot mile, 71.50 km (foil PB)., 10.34 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8m.

The wind Gods just keep on giving here on the East Coast making this my 3rd foiling session in as many days covering 110 miles, shortie time too in this endless summer and long may it last:) Arrived at The Manor after dropping Mag off for her daily walk home around 9.15 to find super keen Andy Mexome with his foil board already set up on the beach! Still with the wind WSW a fraction off its nice to have a guinea pig so when Andy set of in sparkling sunshine we waited to see if his 7.3 was going to be enough as he was hoping to foil down towards Walton but it did look light out on the water so I went with my 7.8. Once on the water I decided against following Andy across the shipping channel to Walton today as the wind was way to patchy and pretty marginal even for the 7.8, it was forecast to drop after lunch to. So, I went up the coast doing several long mile and a half runs out to sea and having fun playing with the yachts and running down the swell in lovely smooth water. It was nice to sail close to the beach to gybe, that’s still a work in progress with flying all the way round still some way off! Then things went wrong as I made it to The Dip as the whole of Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club were heading out of the Deben on a mass race to the pier I think just as the wind decided to drop:( Up until this point I had been able to pump up onto the plan but that was now impossible so I started the slow slog back. We the tide against me I did small beats staying close to the shore to try and avoid the main current. It was pleasant enough, if a tad frustrating as it would have been fun joining in with the racing if only, I could fly! It wasn’t helped when foil racer David Coles on mega big kit as flying up wind with the dinghies, he later sailed up the River Deben with them:) I had to avoid seral lobster pots, then just short of the pier I stopped for selfie time, pasted a man fishing in an canoe, then at the pier the wind returned with a vengeance, now easily 18 knots making things instantly interesting as the sea soon picked up nice and big! On the plus side it didn’t take me long to get back to The Manor and at this point I was not sure what to do, swop to a fin, change down a sail size? I briefly landed but didn’t take my gear out of the water and decided to try the foil again and I am glad I did as I had some of the best runs of the day and couldn’t believe I was using a bigger sail than the fin sailor’s! The absolute best thing about foiling is doing really long runs downwind playing with the swell knowing you can easily get back upwind so while the fin boards are pretty limited to their sailing area with the foil you can use the whole ocean, in fact the further you went out, past Wadgate Post the smoother the sea became, just fantastic! As I had been out on the water for 5 hours my poor old legs were getting tired and I was starting to get a few dips in the sea it was sadly time to call it a day, but what a day 71.5 km covered, a foiling best, I am trying to go fast broad but that is scary and I am working on my upwind in a big sea which is coming along OK so a great day was had by all of which I think the majority were foiling:)

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