Sunday 11th April - Windsurf ** - River Stour at Bradfield – sunny periods with hale.
Foil – 18.07 knot max, 16.61 knot ave., 6.40 knot hour, 13.84 knot mile, 19.00 km.,11.54 knot alpha.
Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lighting 7.8.
After foiling three days in a row, I was going to give today a miss especially as it was going to be another cold north wind day but there were several messages on WhatsApp saying that they were heading to Bradfield on the Stour and in the end, I could not resist! Still, I didn’t make up my mind until this morning being still in bed at 9.20, I still managed to have breakfast, struggle into my wetsuit, hitch the trailer and drive the 20 miles over the border and still arrived first! I was setting up my foil board and thinking what sail to rig, the cold onshore wind looked marginal at best as the others started to arrive, in the end Andy, Robert, Michael, David, James and Simon turned up to give it a go! With the wind looking to increase, I didn’t fancy going out with 8.5 so rigged my 7.8 wading out with Michael and was soon up and flying in a good breeze. I made it into the middle of Holbrook Bay which was super smooth but sadly it went down hill from there as you had to wobble about waiting for a gust. It was funny conditions really 5 knots one minute, 15 the next, I got a few nice runs but it was cold on the hands not helped when the hail arrived! The wind then all but disappeared and most headed in to pack up, sods law the wind did build for awhile and fin sailor Simon and local made the most of it! Not the best session but it is always nice to be out on the beautiful Stour and fingers crossed for late next week when hopefully we get a run of North Easterlies, milder too plus we have just had a phone call from our son in Surrey and hopefully we can meet up next Thursday somewhere and see Grandson Arlo too :)
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http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms
https://www.77sports.co.uk/
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