Monday 5th July- Windsurf ***** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods.

Fin – 20.002 knot max, 17.91 knot ave., 12.03 knot hour, 16.54 knot mile, 55.84 km.,5.33 knot alpha.

Fanatic Cat with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m and 39 fin.

July continues to be good for wind with slightly more than yesterday so after doing my exercises in the sunshine in our back garden I made a sandwich, hitched the trailer and headed off around one. I was not sure what venue today, I decided to try The Manor first and managed to park at the end of the prom which made my mind up to sail there. The onshore wind looked strong enough to shortboard and when I get a gust of 23 mph, I decided to rig my 7m and put both my 133lt. and 115lt. on the beach ready! Michael Galbraith was out foiling launching a few groynes along with 5.5 I think but didn’t look overly powered up so I was not sure it was windy enough; my suspicions were confirmed by the time I got my shortie on so I quickly rigged my 8.5 and took my longboard out again a decision I quickly learned was idea:) I headed off broad with the track back and the dagger board up and planed all the way past the red and wite bouy in front of The Dip, not flat out but definitely faster than yesterday. The sea was pretty big but by sailing broad you smoothed most of the lumps out and running down the waves before heading up again to keep moving fast is as much fun as you can have on a board, despite the long length of my raceboard it sails like a shortboard with a reasonable top speed considering how heavy it is! The beat back was again top notch, just can’t get enough of this upwind action cutting through the big waves, so good. I was having so much fun I did that three times, easy sailing with little effort and was now joined on the water by Robert, Chris, Ian, Chris and Andy on a mix of fin and foil but to be honest it was probably marginal for fin sailing unless you had big gear! Sadly, the sun had gone but it was still warm so I decided to go for another ¾ mile reach and in the end did it three more times before calling it a day. Tomorrow is looking mega windy but after two days out on the longboard I can’t face the drive and walk out so if I go, I will stay local, perhaps Levington in the morning if not raining and blowing mental!

PS. Got a few pics of the afternoon but they are not great, not helped by the fact the sailors were a long way out to sea!

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