Wednesday 20th April - Windsurf **** The Dip, Felixstowe – sunny.

Foil – 15.92 knot max, 14.82 knot ave., 9.28 knot hour, 13.41 knot mile, 32.71 km., 12.69 knot alpha.

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

What a day, wall to wall sunshine, mild with a good ENE breeze making it ideal for The Dip, even better as its under two miles from home:) With high water at 2.50 making The Dip hard to launch as there is very little beach, I was keen to get done fairly early to make the most of the best conditions. I arrived at 10.15 and it looked great a cross onshore breeze around 16 knots, in fact it stayed around that for the whole session but it looked windier out on the water. I quickly set up my foil and took a chance with my 6.5 as fellow windsurfer Mark Swain arrived on his bike to check out the conditions. He soon returned with his kit and went foiling with 7.3. I was on the water at 11 and to start with I thought I had rigged too big but things calmed down. After a few short runs in front of the launch to gauge the conditions, including some OK gybes in flattish water I thought there was enough for a trip to The Manor. I had a good long run down the coast but seemed to run out of wind the further I sailed offshore so gybed. I was now in the strongest tide at Jacobs ladder and found the wind was not as strong as first thought, I could fly no problem long runs out to sea, the furthest over two and a half miles, getting better at flying up and down through the waves, I had the whole seafront to myself to play in:) With a sail that was a fraction too small although I would not have been happy using one of my twin cam sails with the sea getting bigger as the tide approached high, I had a little trouble getting back upwind, things would have been much better if it was wind against tide but I got back OK in the end. In the end I was out over four hours covering over 32 miles, nothing fast just mellow sailing enjoying the solitude, sunshine and waves. I was entertained by a circling USA Hercules dropping parachutists in the sea in front of Bawdsey. I managed to land OK in a corner by a groyne on a little section of beach, quick chat with Swainy, pack up and home in five minutes:) We have several more days of breezy with it getting stronger too, so might even be able to have a few runs on the fin for a change!

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