Thursday 2nd – Windsurf ** - River Orwell, Levington – cloudy.

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7m.

Fin – 21.96 knot max., 21.19 knot ave., 6.39 knot hour, 10.54 knot mile, 20.50 km., 8.35 knot Alpha.

I was keen to get out for my first session of 2020 today as an OK SW breeze and 9 degrees forecast even if the tide on the Orwell was not idea, high at 3.45. So, I headed down to the marina just before midday and the water was still fairly low and the parking area is still blocked by a large dredging pipe:( So I read my book and listened to the radio for awhile waiting for the tide to come in. It didn’t look overly windy and to be honest it would have been better to sail in the open sea but being chilly and I back playing up the river is always a safer option. Also, you can sail in shallow water, which means you can stay dry and sail longer. I tried the wind gauge and the onshore winds were gusting well over 20 mph with it forecast to pick up I went for 7m on my 133lt board. I had to walk a long way to find someone to zip me into my wetsuit and by the time I had carried my kit to the water the wind looked marginal at best and in the end, I should have rigged 8.5 and taken out the 147lt. board but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Also, it would have been better to foil but there was a lot of shallow water limiting where you could foil! So, I spent over two hours sailing across the bay end getting the odd gust so I managed a 20 average, managing to keep completely dry with only my hands getting cold. Towards the end of the session the wind picked up slightly and I had a couple of runs towards Pin Mill seeing loads birds, the highlight of the session! I do dislike the winter and finding enthusiasm to sail is hard, we could do with a Portland Harbour type venue on our doorstop! As it was cloudy miserable day I decided to call it a day as the light faded and had a nice chat with a wildfowler out to bag himself a couple of duck for tea and managed to pack up before it got too dark but did have to drive home in my sunglasses!

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