Thursday 8th April - Windsurf *** - River Orwell at Levington Marina – cloudy and cold.

Foil – 17.76 knot max, 16.52 knot ave., 9.78 knot hour, 13.90 knot mile, 40.32 km.,13.39 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 8.5.

With our van booked in for two new tyres this afternoon my only option was the River Orwell at Levington but with high water at 10.13 I had to get there fairly early. So, I checked Landguard weather station around eight and although the wind looked marginal and the temperature was low, the sun was out so I decided to take a chance. I dropped Mag off in Trimley for her walk and arrived at the marina around 8.30 and parked right at the end just past the big crane. There was loads of water but the cross on wind probably WSW at this point was marginal so I set up my foil board by which time the breeze had filled, sail choice is always a little hit and miss on the river as the wind can be up and down but I decided to rig 8.5, go big or go home! Wrapped up with hat and gloves I set off and to be honest my hands suffered during this two-hour session as it was chilly probably only 6 degrees at this point but the nice thing about foiling is you can keep out of the water. In fact, I did not fall in once, speeds were not big but it was too cold to push things too hard! I had some nice runs across the corner managing to beat up to Nacton Shore where the wind went patchy but had a nice broad run back playing with the swell. The two aluminium boats that are usually on trailers in the marina headed out to sea, I think these are the boats that pick up the army parachuters that drop into the sea off Bawdsey beach! There was some interesting gusts approaching 20 knots but the 8.5 handles them fine:) Despite the cloudy cloud session it is always nice to be out on the Orwell with squadrons of geese and waders flying over head plus a few yachts and also several kids on the toppers out. The tide had turned which chopped the river up a little but after two hours my hands had had enough so I decided to call it a day. When disconnecting my rig from my board my hands dripped in the icy water, I then had to sit for five minutes in the van to feel the feeling back! After packing up I soon warmed up in the 5-star showers making it home by midday:)

Walk – Around Felixstowe.

Mag had to go to Lidl but forgot her mobile so I biked down to give it to her and came back along the very busy prom, could not believe the length of the que for fish and chips. I then spotted the two planes circling low at Bawdsey after having made the parachute drop. After lunch Mag and I drive to the cliff top car park but the planes had gone, a few kites were making the most of the flat water in the Deben entrance. We then dropped the van off and had an hour to waste so headed down to the prom. Turning left so we had the wind on our back we headed to Jacobs Ladder where we stopped to take in the nice view of the Martello tower and Bawdsey manor. It was very pleasant now with the sun out and the temperature a few degrees warmer than this morning. With a few windsurfers heading to The Manor for a 2.30 start I was expecting to see some foilers. We continued along the beach collecting a little coal as Andy Mexome foiled past followed by David Coles. Then up the cliff walking back through the sheltered town to pick up the van and pay £270 still we are not using the van much these days so the new tyres should last years now! There is two days of wind for the weekend with some good tides for the Stour but it is going to be pretty cold so I might have to give that a miss:(

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