Monday 3rd January - Windsurf ***** River Orwell at Levington – mainly cloudy.

Foil – 19.07 knot max, 17.56 knot ave., 11.59 knot hour, 16.43 knot mile, 66.88 km., 13.71 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m.

With this being the last mild day before it gets cold, I was keen to get out on the water, I have had a good run since Christmas too:) With high water at 11.48 you did not need to get there at first light today and arrived at the marina just before 9 and was quickly joined by fellow foilers Robert and Ian:) It was the best part of the day with sunshine over the docks but that sadly quickly disappeared but the breeze was very light. We were in no hurry to rig so set up our foil boards hoping for the breeze to pick up and talk about Ian’s new foil sail, a Duotone F-type 6.4:) With loads of water in the river the wind started to increase slightly so I went big rigging my 8.5, Robert 6.5 and Ian 6.4. I was first out and there was enough to fly, I pumped but the board would not come out of the water, I floundered to the far bank, jumped in turned the board over and removed the weed, that improved things and started a pretty full-on session! In the end I was out well over three hours covering 41 miles with winds gusting over 25 knots, the big sail handles that with ease, the only downside is it is much harder to gybe and my 6.5 would have been good. For a large part of the session the River Orwell was pretty lumpy which meant going fast hard, it was only when the tide started to drop that things smoothed off! I have to get some lightweight sails as the Lightnings are so heavy and when I dropped in on several gybes it very tiring uphauling! In the end Robert and Ian ended in and I was joined on the water by local Steve Miller as the conditions got better with my speeds improving, I even got a few flying gybes too. I was now knackered so called it a day, showered and headed for home, foiling does not get any better especially in January!

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