Tuesday 9th December  – Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levinngton  –  cloudy

Foil – 20.14  knot max, 18.72 knot ave., 12.49  knot hour, 16.99 knot mile, 33.82 km., 14.32 knot alpha. 

Starboard Freeride 150 (LW) and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Bolt 5m.

After yesterdays poor session as keen to get back to Levington today  I was keen to get back to Levington for another try, with Storm Bram passing through today it made me a little nervous bvut as the storm centre was over Scotland we were on the edge so the wind and rain was nowhere near that bad, no weather warning required in Suffolk for today! The early rain had stopped by 9.30, Mag still went on her early walk in the wet, she is made of stern stuff! I had to have a blood test at 10 so after a late breakfast I was ready to leave before 11 and was the only one at the marina, with the tide still fairly low there were no wingers as they like more water to launch but that’s not a problem for me as I love doing short tacks out of the marina entrance:) Once again I set up my lightweight Starboard foil board as it’s much easier to carry to the water, I took my wind gauge and at this point the wind was fairly light, I did not want to rig my 6.5 so took the 5.7 over to the waters edge. The wind started to build do I swopped it with my Bolt 5m which proved perfect for a couple of hours until the wind eased back as a couple of wingers arrived, Andy another winger was already out. I launched in the cloudy gloom but no rain and did a few tack to reach deep water, at first I thought I had rigged too small but the wind increased, gusting to 25 mph and I was able to do some cracking long runs from the corner up towards Pin Mill, you could fly through most of the lulls by bearing off, my gybing was OK and I didn’t go in there but went in a couple of times when I sailed behind a large dredger heading to Ipswich and once when the wind suddenly changed direction catching me out! So at last a decent session after a run of poor ones, SW is a top direction here and I was pleased to break 20 knots max, get an OK mile, average and hour, I sailed 21 miles, it would have been further but the wind dropped and I decided to call it a day. I took a few pics of the wingers who were flying in patches, have a shower, the sun broke through the clouds before I left which made for a nice pic over the marina. On the way home I made a detour along Gulpher Road where I got a couple more nice pics of trees against the sky and was lucky enough to get one on ITV’s About Anglia!
It migh be windy enough for another go tomoorow as the mild weather continues but I am having a tooth removed at 10.10 so will wait to see how I feel in the morning:) 

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