Sunday 15th August - Windsurf **** The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny and warm.

Foil – 17.09 knot max, 15.71 knot ave ., 8.69 knot hour, 13.02 knot mile, 47.55 km ., 11.50 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7m and 7.8m.

Fin – 24.38 knot max, 20.96 knot ave ., 6.30 knot hour, 17.68 knot mile , 12.05 km ., 13.92 knot alpha.

F2 Zantos 295 with 38 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7.8m.

It was a good forecast today, sunny with a nice SW breeze with the tide going coming in most of the day making it wind with tide, as the wind was supposed to start WSW The Manor was the only option today so when we woke at just before seven, I decided to take my trailer down to the seafront as I thought I might have trouble parking later as it is a popular spot! Mag came down so we could have a nice walk back along the prom to enjoy the best part of the day when it is still nice and quiet. With the van and trailer in a prim spot and after taking a pic of Felixstowe Ferry Harbour Master doing his stretching exercises after having biked to the end of the prom, we walked back enjoying the clear blue skies, it was looking like it was going to be a good day! The large group of swimmers, well paddlers who go for a dip every day were at the pier as we walked up through the gardens and home for a cuppa in bed and read a few chapters. With the wind still light I had enough time to do my exercises in the bac k garden, have to keep the back moving! I then made lunch for both Mag and I, she was happy to potter in her lovely garden and I biked along the now heaving prom into a good breeze, ideal for foiling now! I quickly set up my foil board, had a quick chat to Al Wiz who lives on the caravan site here whose foiling is coming along nicely:) With the wind now wsw it is difficult to gauge the wind strength out to sea but it looked fairly breezy so went for my 2 cam Lightning 7m. With shortie on, spares in the rucksack including vhf radio, drink and a snack just in case I went for a cruise and set off, flying straight away thinking I could have rigged 6.5! Strangely thigs went a little weird, I have never sailed in winds so up and down and changing direction constantly! It varied between SSW to NW with 5 to over 20 knots of wind making for a challenging and very interesting session! I stated off heading down towards The Dip but soon gave up on that as the wind went patchy so headed back to where the fun began, one minute you were sailing straight at Wadgate post the next parallel to the beach. The Manor break was showing nicely too, I took it very slowly across that as it looked very shallow but did not hit the bottom anywhere. I had a good run out over two miles out with Andy M but with the wind now dropping very light I decided to head in only for it too build again and had some fantastic runs in front of The Manor in the flattest water I have ever sailing in here with only me and Andy out! With the wind continuing to be patchy I slogged in as several decided to head out. My launch groyne was very calm as I landed so when I could stand, I disconnected my sail to take my board ashore and when I returned to my sail, I had broken a battern, I was just really unlucky as the was next to no waves! I had had over two hours out so had my lunch and was temped to back up but the wind had turned SW and picked up so I rigged my 7.8 and took the foil out again. It was now perfect for a broad run up the coast with the bigger sail ideal to start with, running the swell and sailing fairly close to the shore I passed the very lumpy water at Jacobs ladder as the wind continued to build. Reaching The Dip, I turned to beat out to the red and white bouy with winds now gusting over 20 knots and the sea very quickly becoming very big! I had a challenging beat back having trouble sheeting the sail in but made it back with no problems, I love my board and it tacks really well:) I had one run out towards Wadgate but I defiantly had way too much sail and several were now out on their fin boards so I headed back to swop, avoiding the sea fisherman’s lines, they had set up while I had been out but with the tide now turned so it was wind with tide, I easily missed the lines. I then decided to have a quick go on a fin board, I went for the bigger Xantos 295 to take the 7.8 and hopefully it would stay upwind better. I had a half hour on the fin but it was hard being overpowered, the 7m would have been perfect, I did bear off a few times but going fast was hard with too much sail and you really needed to beat both ways or else you would quickly lose downwind. Getting knackered now I decided to call it a day and headed in to pack up! Home I quickly replaced the broken batten, I have hundreds in my garage, shower and then a cuppa and cake with Mag – interesting day:) with another breezy day tomorrow, hopefully WNW!

PS – check out the tracks on todays Google Earth pic. They are all over the place!!!

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http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms

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