Saturday 29th - Windsurf *** - River Stour at Bradfield – sunny and hot:)
Walk ***** Bradfield to Wrabness.
Foil – 15.98 knot max, 15.19 knot ave., 7.47 knot hour, 12.99 knot mile, 41.70 km.,12.15 knot alpha.
Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m.
Today was a bonus session really as the forecast was always on the marginal side but with wall to wall sunshine and temperatures pushing 20 degrees it was too good a day to miss. With such good weather the coast is often best avoided being very busy so with high water around 3 on the Stour we decided to pack a picnic lunch and drive over to Bradfield. It was a win win situation, have a nice quiet lunch with stunning views in a quiet location, if it was windy enough I could foil, if not we could relax and go for a walk:) So after the usual morning at home, me exercise while Mag pottered both in the garden we drove the 25 miles into Essex with the countryside looking lovely with many shades of green:) Michael Galbraith was there rigging 7.5 with both his longboard and foil, David and Robert arrived soon after followed by local James a bit later. There were gusts to 13 mph on the beach but with Michael struggling on his foil to start with swops to his longboard I was in no hurry to get out so after setting up my foil board and 8.5, in hindsight I should have rigged my 9.4 to see how that works in light marginal winds??? David Coles was now out with his racing foil equipment with a 9.5 and was rarely off the foil which is very hard to match on more freeride gear, in fact David had by far the best session and it was much harder for the rest of us! The session started well for me as I was soon flying across the river in super flat water but I had to keep bearing off to keep it flying and then struggled to beat against the tide as underpowered, most of the time the only way I could get going was very vigorous pumping, something my poor old hands don’t like much! In the end it was a session hard on the body with loads of slogging waiting for a bit of a gust but it was lovely to be out in warm sunshine which makes a welcome change as it has been chilly a lot this year. I also tried lots of gybing but with a bigger sail in lighter winds it is not the best conditions for cracking flying gybes, still it took me two hours before I fell in! Still, it can’t have been too bad as I was out three hours, time to check Mag is, OK? She had a nice time, even sitting in the sun for a while, reading and dozing it was nice for her to relax for a bit! Had a very welcome cuppa and cake and a nice chat with James before packing up.
Walk ***** Bradfield to Wrabness.
Then at around 5.30 we went for a lovely walk to the cliffs at Wrabness to check out the sand martins. With the tide dropping fast with a few waders in the mud and sky larks flitting about it was lovely and still warm enough for just a t-shirt:) Through the nature reserve we see the first martins catching insects over the dykes and fields. Reaching the cliff which has eroded a lot from last year with fewer nesting holes but there were loads of martins zooming overhead but getting a pic is next to impossible! We amble back to the van to drive back to Felixstowe, a nice way to end a good day. Another day of similar conditions but not sure where to go at the moment, back to Bradfield or perhaps The Dip for a change?
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10221622721450004
http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms
https://www.77sports.co.uk/