Wednesday 2nd November - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – sunny morning then cloudy.

Fin – 26.009 knot max, 24. knot ave., 13.95 knot hour, 21.25 knot mile, 49.07 km., 18.20 knot alpha (year PB).  

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

I had an appointment at the dentist at 12 today sort out a long running problem tooth, it is being removed on Friday thank goodness:) So that left me to do my exercises in the warm sunshine then after the dentist had a bowl of Mags yummy homemade soup and with the wind forecast to build to strong, I thought it best to check out the River Orwell at Levington once again despite of yesterdays really poor session! I arrived at the marina just before two with the tide till fairly low meaning the water was nice and flat so I thought I would try the fin board again and hope it was windier than yesterday! I went straight for the bigger Zantos with a larger fin too and despite gusts in excess of 25 knots I rigged 6.5 which proved ideal for the 2 hour 20 minute season covering just over 30 miles, so a vast improvement on yesterday:) I launched by the marina entrance at 2.30 and after a couple of short runs was in deep water, the nice thing about the wind coming from the SW is you can do long runs from the corner up towards Pin Mill and was regularly planing for 1.50 mile runs with some good gusts to contend with too and managed an OK mile of over 21 knots, not bad for a gusty river! It does chop up the more the tide comes in so fast speeds were hard to come up but I was pleased enough with todays average and top speed but was surprised to get a year’s best alpha:) I had the whole river to myself apart from a few birds flying over and a couple of yachts, the only downside being the sun had long gone! With the light going it was time to call it a day, pack up and head for the showers just in time for the last of Mags delicious apple puffs with a cuppa. Supposed to be wet and windy tonight with some good winds coming for a few days from Sunday:)

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