Tuesday 8th February - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – sunny and mild.

Foil – 18.02 knot max, 16.96 knot ave., 7.89 knot hour, 16.08 knot mile, 33.52 km., 14.00 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Storm 5.2m.

Fin – 22.24 knot max, 19.93 knot ave., 2.17 knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 7.23 km., 9.77 knot alpha.

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

Winter weather at its very best, breezy, sunny and very mild, 13 degrees today, no gloves required:) Woke to wall-to-wall sunshine with the wind in the west, ideal for another trip to my go to winter venue, Levington Marina. With low water around 10.15 which was the time I arrived and was not sure whether to fin or foil but with the wind a fraction off, it did not look windy enough to fin so I set up my foil board. Now what sail? It certainly now looked pretty breezy out in the middle of the River Orwell so took a chance with 5.2, I also rigged my 6.5 just in case I got the chance for a fin later! With the tide at its lowest but now coming in it was an easy launch by the marina entrance sailing straight out and soon found that it was much windier than expected constantly gusting well over 25 knots. I had several long two mile runs down to check out the container ships in the docks at Felixstowe, sadly when I stopped to take some pics my camera battery was dead, I have now ordered a fresh set from Argos to go with the three little cameras I got off Ebay to replace my old one! There were some holes in the wind which is what you expect on river sailing but I had some cracking runs, sailing straight into the sunshine on the way to the dock and getting some fast mile times on the way back in flat water, it only lumped up back towards the marina. It was great to have the whole river nearly all to myself apart from a few yachts out enjoying the conditions. I got a few OK gybes too but not many today as I was doing really long runs but using a small sail is always good! I had been out over two hours and the wind seemed to be increasing so I headed back for a snack and to give the fin board a try. I had a few runs with the 6.5 and my 133lt Zantos but to be honest it was too gusty and not windy enough to fin so decided to call it a day, pack up, shower and head for home, top day, love the mild sunshine:)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10223112790940810