Saturday 12th June - Windsurf * - River Stour at Bradfield – sunny periods and hot:)

Foil – 15.71 knot max, 14.14 knot ave., 2.14 knot hour, 4.78 knot mile, 12.84 km.,6.36 knot alpha.

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

It was always a dodgy forecast, NW going E around 2, nearly high water on the Stour, still June has so far been such a crap month for wind I was desperate for a decent sail, sadly I was very disappointed once again. That’s three foils so far in June at three different venues and they have all been poor, the only good thing being the sunny, hot weather which to be honest is too hot to bike or walk! While doing my exercises in the back garden while Mag is placing yet another mirror in the garden, that’s the third I keep checking the weather and a 20-knot gust at Shotley at 10.20 made my mind up to go. Mag definitely did not want to come as boring waiting for me to come back so stayed at home. Made a sandwich, hitched the trailer and left just after eleven and was last to arrive at the field at Bradfield after a pleasant drive over despite the fuel warning light coming on! There were only five keen foilers there today hoping for a miracle, Neil, Robert, Jamie and David who were busy rigging and chatting with what looked like a nice breeze from the NW on the river. Neil was first out and after a bit of slogging was up and flying so it looked hopeful. Sadly, it was not to be as the five of us floundered about waiting for a gust to pump up onto. You could manage to fly on most runs but sadly the gusts were very short lived and I don’t think the five of us were ever all flying at the same time! Even David on his big race kit was parked up a lot of the time, coming ashore saying it was one of the worst sail he has had at Bradfield! Lightwind foiling especially in gusty winds is a complete waste of time and would have been much better off going out walking or biking somewhere with Mag, still if you are going to have a session floundering around then there is nowhere prettier than here on the Stour! With the wind all but disappearing I came ashore for my sandwich and to take some pics. With the tide just turned we all decided to give it time to see if the wind kicked in from the East, it did but too late for the tide, there was even white horses down towards Wrabness! Packed up and headed for home making to the garage in Ipswich to fill up with diesel, Mag was surprised to see me back so early!

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