Wednesday 20th July - Windsurf ***** - The Manor at Felixstowe – cloudy start with light rain but then sunny and hot :)

 Foil – 17.71 knot max, 16.75 knot ave., 12.06 knot hour, 15.83 knot mile, 50.76 km., 11.80 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5.

Record breaking temperatures of the last couple of days has passed hopefully, it reached 84 degrees in our back garden yesterday with last night being pretty unbearable! With my poor old Dad in hospital, we had arranged a visiting spot at 3 in the after which left me free to go windsurfing in the morning. With 20 knots of wind from the WSW it looked good so after breakfast I headed down to The Manor, it was actually cloudy and cool with some light rain. I nearly set up my 115 fin board and 6.5 but it did not look windy enough so went with my new foil gear which I am absolutely loving:) I still went with the 6.5 and by the time I was ready to set off just after 9.30 the sun was coming out and the wind had eased back but it had really warmed up:) I need not have worried as the 6.5 proved ideal most of the time, a fraction over at times with the wind a little up and down. It was a tad off to start WSW with the sea really smooth so I had some good long runs down towards The Fludgers but you lost the wind that way so beat back with the wind turning SW in the end which did rough the sea up a little. I am getting the feel of the new gear, I love the board especially feeling livelier than my old Exocet and the foil sails very similar to my Slingshot. I feel comfortable most of the time and my speeds are slowly creeping up and I got my best top speed, ave, mile, distance and alpha today with my gybing starting to improve a little:) I was joined on the water by three more foilers, a winger and a couple of fin sailors although it was a little light for finning. I had some lovely runs out to Wadegate with the break working which means keeping away from the shallow water! I was getting tired so it was time to call it a day, I was surprised to see I had been out for 2 hours 30 minutes covering over 30 miles so a top session in the sun. I was home by one which gave me enough time to do my exercises in the garden before heading to Ipswich Hospital to visit my Dad with Mag.

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