Friday 10th September - Windsurf ** The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods.

Foil – 10.19 knot max, 6.36 knot ave ., 0.40 knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 5.21 km ., 3.97 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7m.

Sunrise prom walk ***

Got up early and headed down to the prom hoping to get a glimpse of the sunrise but sadly we were disappointed as it was very cloudy. Still, it was a pleasant stroll to Jacobs Ladder, with an interesting sky, always the best time to be out and about. Home for a cuppa and read in bed before getting up for breakfast doing my exercises in the back garden as the sun made an appearance:) The breeze was supposed to build but I was not holding my breath as I made salad for lunch.

Windsurf **

After lunch I checked Landguard weather station and the wind had built to 13 knots so I put a message on WhatsApp saying I was heading down to The Manor to check it out? This was the only venue with the wind from the SW but with the sea approaching high it was not going to be ideal! I parked easily at the end of the prom and there was definitely enough to foil, in fact Al Wizz was out on his fin board with 6.7 but to be honest it was not windy enough for that and he was losing downwind:( With the foil board set up, sail choice was the next thing and with 16 knots of wind on the beach and the sea pretty rough I took a chance with my 7m. Shortie on I got off the beach OK and after a wobberly start was soon up and flying in challenging conditions with some big waves, I am improving on flying over them now and all I have to do is sort out my flying gybes but today was not the day to practice them. I was going well in a good breeze and had some really long runs out to sea, two miles was the max to check out a yacht. The wind was swinging about and now it was wind with tide which meant one run I was losing downwind ending up past the Martello tower, the next back where I started! After decent hour the wind disappeared leaving me down by where the old windsurfing club was which left me a slog back, sailing close to the beach to avoid the strongest tide, at least the sea had calmed down and I made it back OK in the end! So that’s two poor sessions this week with no wind in the forecast for several days now:(

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