Saturday 25th December - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – cloudy and cold.

Foil – 18.68 knot max, 16.94 knot ave., 7.76 knot hour, 16.88 knot mile, 20.87 km., 13.60 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

It has been a long-time ambition of mine to windsurf on Christmas Day but it has never worked as we have been away in the mountains or there has been no wind! But today things fell into place with a good easterly of 20 knots plus all day, the only downside was it is cloudy and cold only 5/6 degrees. With the weather being so bad, at least the heavy rain passed during the night but it put Mag and I off our usual bike ride over to Falkenham Church leaving me free to head over to Levington for a foil on the River Orwell:) With low water at 9 I was in no hurry so we had a nice lay in, I checked the local webcams and it was pretty rough down the seafront and the Christmas day dip in the sea for charity was soon cancelled but there were a few hardy kitesurfers making the most of the flat water in the River Deben:) I messaged another mad keen foiler Robert who said he was keen to give it a go despite the cold, agreeing to meet around 11.30. As usual I got there too early and waited for Robert to turn up especially as the tide was still pretty low. Robert arrived at 11.45 and we quickly decided to go for it setting up our foil boards, with the wind from the east it was difficult to judge the strength on the wind especially as the water was so flat. So, I rigged my 6.5 while Robert went for 6m which was fine while the wind was up! There was now just enough water to launch from our little beach but I still managed to get mud all over my boom and it was definitely too cold to wash it off, we did our best to keep out of the water but I think we both went in once! My hands don’t like the cold and my feet were pretty cold by the end of the hour and a half session! We were not the only ones to go out as one yacht and a small fishing boat left the marina just before we set off! I stayed in front of the launch beach for a few runs until I was joined by Robert, then after a couple of tacks we were enjoying long runs down to Felixstowe docks in lovely flat water with loads of cormorants heading back to Loompit Lake:) It was not a day to push things too hard but the gybing is coming along nicely now for both of us, it is just a shame we have got several months of cold weather ahead of us now or we would crack it! Foiling is really good for cold weather sailing as you are on a big board and can hopefully stay dry most of the time, in fact 2021 has been the year of the foil and I have hardly used my fin gear! The wind then went patchy and dropped away so it was time to call it a day so we headed back. I was so pleased to she Mag at the van, she had biked down with some freshly made sausage rolls for lunch, she is an absolute star, life would be very sad and dull without her! With Santa hat on I quickly packed up, had a fantastic hot shower, that quickly got the feeling back into my feet before joining Mag in our lovely little campervan for a warming cuppa and sausage roll, having a nice chat with Robert before he headed off for his Xmas lunch! As we were loading Mags bike in the van a bird watcher arrived who let us look through his scope at a Red throated Diver fishing in the marina:)

Home just in time for a video call from our wonderful Grandson Arlo who is in Liverpool for Christmas before heading to Suffolk hopefully on the 28th, can’t wait:) We then opened loads of presents, we did really well and I was surprised when Mag gave me a large box of goodies making me feel bad as her things had not arrived!

So a top day and another thing ticked off the bucket list, perhaps we can head over to Falkenham church tomorrow as the weather might be a fraction better!

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