Wednesday 28th October - Windsurf **** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods to start then cloudy.

 Foil – 16.17 knot max, 14.96 knot ave ., 10.05 knot hour, 13.76 knot mile, 29.42 km ., 8.26 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Vulcan 6m.

Fin – 25.15 knot max, 21.95 knot ave ., 10.05 knot hour, 17.50 knot mile , 19.70 km ., 10.68 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Vulcan 6m and 38 fin.

After missing a couple of breezy days, I was keen to get out on the water again today but was not sure what venue? A few went to Point Clear but high water was way too early so it was between Levington and The Manor depending on wind strength. If it was really windy, I would have gone to the river but the WSW wind was around 15 knots so Neil, Ian and Robert agreed to meet up at The Manor around ten and hope there were no sea anglers in our launching groyne as it was high water! I dropped Mag off at the end of the prom in lovely sunshine and got to the beach in time to see the large wind farm crane barge head out followed by the DFDS ferry and no fishermen:) The wind was well off so it was a bit of guess work on sail size but it looked breezy on the water so rigged a 6m, the smallest I have ever used for foiling and was first out and was soon up and flying. It was a solid 20 knots when I hit the wind line and set off up the coast. Because of the strength of the wind I stayed in fairly close, also nice to show off near the beach which was busy because of half term:) I did not need to sheet in on the run and could have done with my 5.2 but it was great fun riding the swell:) At The Dip I turned and started the beat back in what must have been the windiest I have ever foiled in the open sea which was very big I am slowly getting the hang of flying upwind in a big sea:) It was so exciting heading back and the others had had a short time on the foil before switching to the fin. If I had a smaller sail, I would have continued on the foil but decided to head ashore and try my F2 282 even though the wind was still cross off. I soon found the wind on the fin and had several OK runs but as it was wind with tide you had to concentrate on keeping upwind. You had to sail straight into the steep chop but the ride back in was fun. The wind was up and down mainly because of the direction. A black cloud appeared and the wind went even more patchy so I headed in as we had a bit of rain. That did not last long and the wind increased so I had a couple more runs getting my fastest speed. Then the wind switched off and I wobbled back losing run groyne, time to call it a day. We have wind for several days to come but looks like rain tomorrow so will have a day off. This has been my best month of the year so far with 16 sessions covering 755 km :)

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