Sunday 12th March - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – mainly cloudy and mild.

Foil – 19.69 knot max, 18.39 knot ave, 12.12 knot hour, 16.20 knot mile, 59.15 km., (year PB) 15.66 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and an Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Thunderbird 6.50m.

After a spell of cold weather which included a lot of rain, some snow too I was keen to get out on the water again today with a good breeze from the WSW and a balmy 12 degrees. In fact, the last time I foiled was 17th February, the day that Maggie was very sadly knocked off her on her way to meet me at Levington, she had to have stitches in her top lip, badly knocked her front teeth and broke her wrist:( She is progressing OK, her face has healed really but her teeth and arm which is in a cast for another three weeks is still uncomfortable but lucky for her she can still walk otherwise she would have gone stir crazy! So, with high water on the River Orwell at 14.40 I was in no hurry to get there and had arranged to meet up with Robert and Ian around 11 which gave me time to do my exercises. Mag was keen to come and I dropped her off in Trimley at 10.45 to walk the four miles to the marina, I continued on, spotting a Red Kite on the way:) The water level was stall low when I arrived which gave me plenty of time to set up my foil and with the wsw gusting to 16 mph I rigged my 6.5 by which time there was enough water to launch OK with Robert going for 6m and Ian who arrived a little later going for 5.6m. WSW is not the best direction here and can be gusty with the water lumpy but with the air temperature now 12 degrees you can’t complain but sadly the sun of early morning had disappeared. Having had a dodgy knee of late I gingerly found my feet today, in fact my leg was fine while sailing and I was soon up and flying but the main wind was on the corner, you ran out of wind if you went too far towards Felixstowe docks with gybing OK in the lumpy water. I could see the dinghies racing upriver at Woolverstone so I started the beat to see them. I had to let a coaster heading to Ipswich pass and the wind was patchy in places but with some really big gusts coming through which made for some challenging conditions:) I got to Woolverstone in time to see the finish of a race, fast and furious it was too, and spoke to windsurfer Paul Michael out racing:) I then had a three mile run back before having several long runs towards the dock in smoother water. Being on the water for three hours and getting knackered it was time to call it a day and head back to the van to pack up and have lunch with Mag who had made it here with no problems enjoying her walk, spotting a woodpecker on the way! Sadly, the zip on my winter suit has broken which might prove a problem, I will have to look for a replacement! That might be it for a bit with super strong winds forecast tomorrow and then getting cooler again, still at least I now have a session in March:)

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