Sunday 30th - Windsurf ***** - River Stour at Bradfield – sunny and hot:)

Foil – 17.15 knot max, 16.21 knot ave., 12.30 knot hour, 14.75 knot mile, 68.62 km.,12.30 knot alpha.

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

With the great Bank holiday weather continuing and a bit more wind than yesterday forecast it was another trip over to Essex to make the most of the late afternoon high at Bradfield on the River Stour, East Anglia’s premier foiling venue:) It gave me time at home in the morning at home with Mag, doing my exercises in the back garden in warm wall to wall sunshine with swifts darting about overhead. As I had left Mag for over three hours yesterday while I had a pump feast yesterday, she did not fancy another trip out so stayed at home doing gardening being entertained by our two naughty kittens, Benny and Rue causing mayhem! With my lockdown hair now completely out of control and as the weather has warmed up so I am not wearing my windsurf helmet and neoprene cap to keep my head toasty I am now sporting a pony tail kindly done by Mag to stop my hair flapping about while sailing and a fetching black skull cap to protect my damaged skin from the sun! With a delicious egg sandwich made, trailer I head off at midday arriving as usual a little early, the Bank Holiday motor cyclists were out in force and one had had a bad accident on the sharp corner accident black spot by the small bridge and was laying on the verge waiting for the ambulance to arrive! I was the second to arrive with Neil and Linda Hurrrell already there, so in the end it was a shame that Mag did not come as she would have had some company! The tide was fairly low still and three didn’t actually look that much more wind than yesterday as the field quickly started to fill up with loads more here than yesterday. With the foil board on the beach and Neil rigging his 8m I again went for my 8.5, hoping that there was not going to be as much pumping as yesterday! I was first out and had to wade out to the yellow 8 knot bouy to find deep enough water, as I was not really comfortable yesterday feeling my harness lines were too long, I put my boom higher today which seemed to help. I soon realised as I set off across the river that it was much windier than yesterday in fact gusting it excess of 20 knots, I decided to beat down into Holbrook bay to see how I got on, but the big sail worked really well handling the wind superbly and as with all my sailing I would rather have too much sail than not enough! In fact, I ended up sailing pretty much none stop for three and a half hours and I can’t overstate now good it was, definitely one of my best foiling sessions ever! Flying pretty much all the time with no pumping required today, the 15/20 knot wind range is just perfect for foiling! I had Holbrook Bay pretty much all to myself in fact despite being a lot more sailors than yesterday it felt that I had the whole river to myself and rarely got within half a mile of anyone else, just now I like it:) The was a fairing big swell running with some interesting gusts but the beauty of this venue is that it is often flatter with less wind either ide making gybing easier which is actually coming along nicely now, not flying all the ay around but getting closer! After beating just past Wrabness, always fun to sail amongst the mooring I decided to head back up river which was going to be interesting with the strength of the wind. In the end I decided to sail really board, probably a dead run sailing fairly slow just playing with the swell hardly needing the sail at all and was very quicky back to the launch beach, I was having so much fun I continued upriver briefly stopping in the shallow warm water in front of Mistley quay to take some pics. Carrying on to Manningtree Sailing Club where the river is at its narrowest and the wind the strongest, I took it fairly easy here as was not sure of the depth but I did not hit the bottom once today:) I beat back was also mega fun so I decided to carry onto Wrabness once again before having a lovely long broad run back as the tide was now beginning to drop! So nothing fast today despite the good winds just fantastic cruising on the much loved slow old Slingshot foil, I am intrigued now what a more sporty foil would be like and would definitely like to try something a little faster now!

Time to pack up and head for home as we are actually around the neighbours for a quiz today, there was a mix of fin and foil here today and great fun was had by all, always great to be out in the warm sunshine and perhaps more again tomorrow but perhaps not was windy as today?

Arrived home safely, quick shower followed by cheese and toast and then out a couple of doors down the road where we had such a laugh with a quiz and snacks not leaving until 10.30 – what a great day :)

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