Saturday 1st January - Windsurf ***** River Orwell at Levington – sunny periods and mild.

Foil – 19.75 knot max, 18.18 knot ave., 11.18 knot hour, 15.64 knot mile, 44.18 km., 13.74 knot alpha.

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

The wind Gods just keep giving and being the first day of the new year Mag and I usually head to the sea front if we are at home to see the first sunrise of the year, sadly this year I saw it at Levington while Mag watched it from the Felixstowe seafront. So, for the third day in a row, I head over to Levington Marina early to catch the tide and hope for a nice sunrise as it had been cloudy the last couple of days! I arrive at the marina at 7.20 and it was looking pretty cloudy with just a glimpse of red. So, I quickly rigged my 6.5 for some self-timer sunrise shots as the sky became a vibrant red, just lovely, Robert caught it too as he arrived at 7.30. We set up our foil boards but the wind was looking pretty light so I rigged my 7.8 while Robert went for 6.5 and we headed out onto the River Orwell in search of a gust. It was pretty patchy to start with but the SSW soon filled in and we had loads of full on runs when my 6.5 would have been much better, my once loved Tushingham Lightning is so heavy to use and I would love a set of Ezzy Hydra fin/foil sails but they are so expensive. Then sadly the wind just switched off so Robert and I had a bit of fun gybing around the red channel marker bouy, we nearly called it a day as several yachts headed out for a New Years Day sail. Then the wind filled in again and we enjoyed some full-on foil blasting with some good gybing, some worked some didn’t but great fun trying never the less:) We had been out well over two hours and with the wind easing and the tide dropping it was time to call it a day. There is more wind tomorrow but I will give it a miss as we have my Grandson staying and they are heading home tomorrow:( but hope to get out again on Monday before the temperature drops again!

Home for a quick bite to eat before heading over to my Sister, who I haven’t seen for over a year for a family afternoon get together turned turned out to be great fun, my Dad was there, with me and my sister, plus my two boys Robert and Daniel and Grandson Arlo, so that’s four generations of Squirrell’s in the same room, just lovely:)