With a sw wind forwcast choosing a venue was our first consideration, the wind was light to start but it was building nicely so I left home at 11. There was no one at The Dip so I continued to the cliff and gave Neil Hurrell a ring and he said he would be there within the hour but by that time David Coles had arrived. The wind was sw and there looked a bit of a wind shadow close in, we humed and hared about going to The Manor but decided to stay here. David rigged 9.5 for his formula board and I went with my favourite 7.8 on my 133. With the tide still fairly low the sea looked flat from the beach but we were soon proved wrong and it was aconfused lumpy mess for most of the session. I beat down the coast and went for a mile run and when I checked the gps I had only peaked at 23kts, it felt like 33 kts!!! as the sea was all but unsailable and going fast a nightmare. Time to come ashore and rig the 6.5 and try my new F2 ride 282 for the first time and soon added a couple of knots to my top speed. This is a great little board and I was even gybing it ok but going broad was challenging to say the least. I need to change my way of sailing in super rough seas by using smaller kit and sailing slower underpowered but it is hard to get that into my head as I just love sailing fast and broad. The wind did increase enough for the heavier sailers to change down to 5.7 with the lightweights going even smaller. I was way too hot in my full suit and changed to my shortie, but I soon had had enough of being battered by the sea so started to pack up, but the Hurrells were having a good time so decided to give it another try. Speed buddy Peter Cutts who is flying at the moment had just broken 27kts so I had to give it another go as Mag had just had arrived walking, after a chat she went to the Hurrells campervan for a catch up with Linda:) Things had calmed down and I had a better time and went for some interesting miles runs getting my years best run of 23kts. The tide was helping and getting back upwind was easy with the help of the tide. Craig Hurrell had a bit of drama breaking a mast out past the red and white bouy but lucky for him the volunteer boat was right by the beach so he was quicklty rescued:) It was nice to so lots of sailers out and for the second day in a row I managed a 25 kt ave with a good mile so can't complain even if the sea here at Felixstowe can be a nightmare!
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