Saturday 26th October – Windsurf **** - River Orwell - Levington – cloudy.

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

Fin – 28.96 knot max., 26.91 knot ave., 13.91 knot hour, 22.55 knot mile, 76.70 km., 17.79 knot alpha.

With a SW wind 25 gusting to 40 mph and with a high tide around eleven it was going to be a fairly early start which suited to forecast as it was supposed to ease down and rain! Several sailors were going to Point Clear but I have been there a lot this year and although it has been OK it has been nothing special being gusty and lumpy in the lagoon on several occasions. Getting a 30 knot average has been impossible for me getting 29 loads of time so I couldn’t face the 80 mile round trip to arrive on the Green at 8.30 so decided to drive the 6 miles to Levington Marina where the River Orwell works quite well in a SW:) I arrived at the Marina at 8.30 with plenty of water in the River but the wind didn’t look overly strong? The Marina dredger had been moored up close to the shore to the right of our launch spot and several metal pipes had been moved to our parking area, I had a word with the dredger man and he said it was OK to park so went to my usual spot. I nearly rigged 7m as the wind was only gusting to 20 mph but set up my Zantos 295 at 133 lts, I chose a large board to get me through the lulls and the wind seemed to have increased so I went with my 6.5 which was pretty much perfect for the whole session. You never have the right size sail for all the session here on the river when the wind was as light as 10 knots but gusting up close to 30 knots but planning a good percentage of the time and in fact covered 47 miles helped by the long runs you can do from Levington Bay towards Pin Mill where the wind went really gusty! The best water conditions were with the tide coming in or when it was slack as it really chopped up when the tide turned and the wind went patchy too! With loads of water in the river you could sail pretty much anywhere getting some nice gybes in Levington Bay and sailing close to the bank for up to two miles and the best thing was I had it nearly all to myself apart from foiler Jamie having a full on foil session but to be honest it looked hard work especially when the big gust came through and he was on 4.7! So in the end I was out for the best part of 5 hours doing loads more miles than I would have done in Point Clear Lagoon being only a few knots slower and saved me an hour and a half travelling so win win all round:) Looks like its going to get cooler next week but might get the chance to get out on the foil? Then when I come ashore Jamie asks if I want to know the England v New Zealand score and say yes – 19 – 7 what a great result!!!! I get home making a detour via The Dip where a few are out but the wind is a little off and the rain has started so I am pleased I went to Levington:) Maggie had been very busy preparing for decorating and after a catch up we watched the rugby and to be honest there was only going to be one winner of that game, England played New Zealand off the park and were unlucky to have two tries disallowed which would have made the score really embarrassing for the All Blacks! So fingers crossed they can repeat that performance against hopefully Wales in next weeks final!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.squirrell.1/media_set?set=a.10216767207305185&type=3

 http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/