Saturday 1st August- Windsurf *** - River Orwell at Levington Marina – sunny.

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

Foil – 14.96 knot max, 14.02 knot ave ., 3.76 knot hour, 9.14 knot mile, 27.68 km., 9.53 knot alpha.

With yesterdays wash out when the weatherman forecast us windsurfers wall to wall sunshine, 30-degree temperatures and a good SE breeze which again failed to arrive at Felixstowe and despite loads of us going to The Dip for hours waiting we were disappointed, still great weather for a social get together. We were lucky that we have limited parking for windsurfers at The Dip as Felixstowe was pretty much grad locked as most of Suffolk headed to Felixstowe and enjoyed the relative peace and quiet! We our hair dresser coming from Ipswich at 10 for our first haircut since December 10th I was going to give the early breeze a miss. As it was a hot night Mag opened our bedroom window wide and I was woken at 7 to the curtains being blown out. I checked Landguard and saw that the westerly was strong enough for a foil, I didn’t have time to drive over to Bradfield so went to my favourite local venue Levington Marina. Again, Mag came some of the way so she could get her daily walk and I arrived at the Marina at 8 and was expecting James Pollard to be there but I was the first to arrive! We the wind blowing straight down the River Orwell to 15 mph I set up the foil and took a chance on my 7m as I didn’t have Andy M to advise on sail choice:) There was plenty of water as I set off across the river and was soon up and flying but the wind was pretty patchy and I could have down with a bigger sail. With not much wind down towards Felixstowe docks I headed up river deciding on tacking today and gybed every turn, still not flying turns but good fun trying! You had to keep an eye open as there were loads of yachts heading out to sea as I beat towards Pin Mill. I had some OK runs interspersed with slogging but that’s river sailing for you! Still the sun was out and I had plenty of water, with the wind going really patchy I turned back towards the Marina and spotted Jamie out flying well. I learned he was on his 6.9, being a lightweight I knew I was really under sailed, in fact in the end he went in and changed to 7.8. I had been out two hours and it was time to call it a day as my haircut beckoned! So, after a catch up with Jamie, packing up and having another top shower at the marina I got home at midday in perfect time for a trim with the lovely Susan. Looks like the same again for tomorrow, I am now thinking that paying for Bradfield on the Stour might have been a waste of money because although the sailing is better on the Stour I don’t always want a round trip of 50 miles especially in the winter when you only want a quick hour, still I can make that decision next year?

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http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/

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