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 Sunday 2nd – windsurf ***** West Mersea – sunny periods and very mild:)

F2 Xantos 295 with Tuushingham Lightning 7.8 and 39 cm fin.

28.45 knot max (spot PB)., 25.65 knot ave ., 15.80 knot hour, 23.90  knot mile (spot PB), 71.50 km., 15.77 knot alpha.

After yesterdays washout everyone was getting excited about todays forecast, wall to wall sunshine and 12/14 degrees with a WSW wind gusting over 20 knots!!!! Everyone agreed on WhatsApp to head over to Essex and have the day at West Mersea as this direction is a bit off at Felixstowe even though the tide was fairly low and dropping most of the session giving you wind with tide. There were definitely more Felixstowe sailors than locals today with Neil & Craig Hurrell, Mark, Nick & Ed Swain, Andrew Mexome, Mark Smalling, Ian Clarke, Strawberry and Peter Edmunds soon filling the £3 a day carpark by the windsurfing hut:) Mag and I arrived just before ten and Neil (8m) and Craig (7m) were already out but it didn’t look overly windy but the Hurrells were planing OK and most were rigging around 7.5 so I went with my 7.8 and 133 lt. Xantos, hoping I wouldn’t need mu 8.5 as it is being repaired! By the time I had rigged and walked my kit out along the shingle bank to the water several were chatting as the wind had gone light:( The sea looked super smooth as I headed off the beach but to start with the wind was mariginal, shame really as I had set my casio watch to try for an hour run. I usually come here in a westerly but with a lot of south in it today you had long runs out to sea to the left heading down towards the River Crouch but not making it that far as it’s nearly ten miles away!!! Once planing I was on for a good hour as was easily reaching at 18 knots plus but could have done with the tide coming in as going upwind slowed you down and then the wind went patchy which messed that hour up. The strongest winds were over the far side but I was nervous of going further than 2.50 miles as I had forgot to take my GPS rescue beacon! The first hour finished I decided to beat up the river towards Monkey Beach to see if there was any flatter water behind the island as the wind increased and 7m would have been better but I was fine beating and sailing broad so continued. I did have a good wipe-out when checking how close to a second hour I was and went off the front, to then discover I had lost my watch!!! I went for some great broad mile runs and nearly made 24 knots twice and managed a spot PB mile of 23.91 and got my best ever top speed as well. It was fantastic when the sun came out and this is a nice place to sail with Bradwell Nuclear Power Station and remote beaches one side and pretty rows of beach huts the other all under an amazing sky including a rainbow:) After being out non-stop for two and a half hours I decided to call it a day as the wind dropped off and headed back. It must have been low tide as it was a bit of a walk back to the van. I had to do the sail and board in two trips. Back with Mag I was in time to say goodbye to several mates all saying what a top session they had had:) Mag soon had a delicious baked potato and bacon heated up followed by scones, jam and clotted cream, we know how to live! Then after packing up Mag and I walked past the row of brightly coloured beach huts before returning to the van and driving the 37 miles home. What a top 5 star session and more wind forecast for the week:)

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