Wednesday 29th September - Windsurf ***** River Orwell at Levington Marina – sunny periods and showers.

Fin – 22.27 knot max, 25.97 knot ave ., 14.79 knot hour, 19.89 knot mile, 80.06 km., 17.99 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m and 36 fin.

The wind just keeps blowing with no sign of it ending for several days, the only downside being there might be some rain! The forecast direction today was WNW which is OK for my local river venue so with low water at 11.11 I managed to do my exercises before packing lunch arriving at the marina at 11.30 after dropping Mag off enroute for her daily walk. After the heavy rain from last night, it was now a nice day of sunny periods with the odd shower but a tad cooler than of late. There looked loads of wind out on the River Orwell so I rigged as the last session here, my Thunderbird 6.5 and my 133 lt. Xantos 295 ideal for river fin sailing:) Being low water the river was at its flattest as I set off around midday sailing straight out of the marina entrance and there is loads of water to sail in:) With a touch of North again in the wind it was windiest in front of the marina with the wind becoming very gusty down towards the docks so the day turned into a real gybing feast. Doing short 500m runs across the river then being able to gybe in fairly flat, shallow water each side of the river I was getting some nice fast turns for me, rarely falling in, just such great fun and I had it all to myself with just a few yachts braving the strong winds ranging from 15 to 30 knots! Nothing super fast but challenging at times with a big swell running down the middle of the river. After an excellent couple of hours, I headed back to the van for lunch as Andy M and Chris S arrived, sadly Andy had to return to work but Chris went out on his fin board with 5m. After lunch the wind looked like the wind had eased as I headed out again but I was wrong, in fact it was probably the windiest of the whole session and I did loads more miles, having super fun gybing right in front of the launch beach but with more water in the river it does lump up, it is definitely better to sail with the tide lower you just have to be careful to stay in the main channel when foiling but you would definitely be OK! Again, river fin sailing does not get any better than this you just need to rig big and use a high-volume board to get you through the lulls, in the end I missed sailing 50 miles by a whisker, missed an 18-knot alpha by a fraction but getting at least 10 over 17 knots, I have never gybed so much in one session! Also managing two-hour sessions over 14 knots, again all not bad for a gusty river venue, just love it here and got a top shower to cap things off! With more fresh winds in the next few days I might stick with Levington as the sea at Felixstowe might be big and lumpy for a pensioner:)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10222355694613875

I was wondering if you would like to take a minute to vote for my pic in this year’s Felixstowe Photo Competition. My picture is FFF in the seashore section – all votes are greatly appreciated:)

https://www.visitfelixstowe.org.uk/features-and-stories/felixstowe-photo-competition-vote-now/