Wednesday 28th July- Windsurf **** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods with thunder and lightning with heavy rain later.

Foil – 17.98 knot max, 15.71 knot ave., 11.08 knot hour, 13.68 knot mile, 53.91 km.,9.90 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

Funny forecast today, starting off westerly which is dead off at Felixstowe but hopefully turning SW but with rain with thunder and lightning coming late afternoon. With low water at 8.47 which made for good conditions with wind against tide so headed down to The Manor and the wind was still west but the sun was out so I walked up to where the car park where the others launch and several were setting up their foils first, hoping to switch to a fin later as the wind builds and turns SW so I quicky returned to my van and set up my foil board. Picking a sail with the wind is in this direction is a bit of guess work, there was white water out to sea so went for my Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5, am loving this camless sail, fast becoming my favourite sail! By the time I had my wetsuit on the wind had turned probably WSW and was gusting over 20 knots but I continued with the foil even though I had my 115 lt. fin board on the beach too! I beat the short distance up the beach to see what the others were up too? Andy M and Lowestoft sailor Peter Drake in Felixstowe for the day were foiling up the coast towards The Fludgers with the others mostly on the foil at this point although I think Neil Hurrell went straight out on his fin as he has not sailed a fin much this year! I decided to turn downwind and sail up the coast, to say I didn’t need any more sail is an understatement but it is such good fun sailing broad on the foil playing with the swell which had very quickly built to pretty big, I am definitely getting better in flying in big sea conditions and by doing long runs I was soon at the bouy at The Fludgers. With the wind at its strongest and with Andy and Peter already headed back to The Manor I saw no point at continuing so started the beat back. This was great fun too with the sea getting smoother as I passed the pier and it was my intension of swopping to my fin board especially as everyone else had already switched! I had a few runs with the fin sailors but thought it was not ideal as the wind was still cross off and a little up and down so I continued with the foil and am glad I did as it was becoming increasingly hard for the fin sailors not helped by the wind easing down. The nice thing about the foil is the angles you can sail, heading off really broad knowing you can get back, just not possible on a fin board unless it is really blowing! Feeling much more in control now with a little less wind I did the Fludgers run again. A couple of long tacks and I was two miles out past the Wadegate Post as a huge black cloud approached. I wanted to get back to take some pics but sadly it killed the wind and I had to flounder in as it started to thunder and lightning. I did make it back to the beach and got to the van for lunch before the really heavy rain came! A cool lunch in the van as the rain fell, at least its good for the garden and our water butts are full. With the rain now passed and the wind not returned I packed up and headed for home. I was out non-stop for three hours covering just over 33 miles of foiling fun perhaps the same tomorrow?

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