Friday 20th October – windsurfing ** Levington – cloudy

26.26 kt. max, 24.08 kt. ave., 9.59 kt. hr., 18.77 kt mile, 32.50 km., 17.36 kt. alpha.

With the wind in the west and a good tide Levington was the only option, it’s lucky I didn’t want to go to Point Clear because of a fatal accident on the A14 the Orwell Bridge was closed most of the day :( With high tide around midday I was hoping to get to the marina by ten but it was a miserable morning with rain falling! In the end I got there by about 10.30 and with wind gusting over 20 mph I went with 6.5 on the 292 but the wind was all over the place, very up and down only planning in patches:( I surprisingly got a 24kt max but a couple more windsurfers came down including Simon Rees but they were not tempted to rig and left. I came ashore to pack up as Tom Alexander arrived and started to rig so I decided to have another go and had my best hour but still very gusty! I increased my max to 26kts and got enough runs for a 24 kt ave but it was hard going. I had some OK runs across the bay and then Tom seemed to be going well further down the Orwell towards the docks so sailed down there to see but was not keen as the tide had turned and if anything went wrong you would end up in the middle of the docks! The wind dropped and it was a struggle to sail the two miles back by which time we had had enough so we backed up. Storm Brian is arriving for tomorrow with forecast winds of 30 to 50 mph which is helpful so not sure whether to bother with a trip to Point Clear or just save myself for a trip to Bradfield on Sunday ????

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