Monday 23rd March – Windsurf **** - River Orwell at Levington – sunny.

F2 Zantos 310 with 44 fin and Tushingham Lightning 8.5.

Fin – 24.57 knot max., 23.46 knot ave., 12.17 knot hour, 18.28 knot mile, 54.40 km., 16.47 knot Alpha.

For the third day in a row I took my gear to the water but I actually got out on it today after two aborted mainly due to being too cold and my back is playing up too:( I will to windsurf for as long as possible in these very difficult, worrying times, I windsurf almost exclusively by myself so hopefully I pose no danger to myself or anyone else. Windsurf mate was going to Levington today to foil and he was already rigged and ready to go when I got there, a 6.6 with his foil and the conditions looked perfect for foiling too, a good SE breeze, loads of water and flat too! I was torn between fin and foil as I like to do a good hour each month for the gps sites so with the good wind of the last few days dropping tomorrow I decided to try the fin and rigged big, my 8.5 on my 147lt. board. Andy headed out and to start with looked to be underpowered so I had my fingers crossed that I could get going? It didn’t start well as the rope broke on the front of my boom as I set off, so I had to switch booms before continuing! By this time Andy had beat into the wind band and was soon disappearing to Felixstowe dock and probably beyond. It didn’t take me long to discover I had made a mistake to fin and found it really difficult to beat to the corner especially as it was wind with tide! I decided to persevere and made it to the corner in the end but it was slow going at times and foiling would have been a 100% better, just not windy enough to fin! This was a real shame as the river was really smooth. After an hour or so things did pick up as the tide slowed, then turned and the breeze filled in. I was getting some nice runs across the river gybing in fairly flat water on each side. Andy was back in view and was having fun beating, sailing broad with some top flying gybes too! Andy had done his 25 miles so called it a day but I carried on with the breeze now gusting to 20 knots so it was pretty much none stop planing, not particularly fast as it was now wind against tide so the river chopped up but it was still great fun in the wall to wall sunshine with only my hands getting a bit chilly. Also, with my zip broken and I have a small gap now which sadly lets cold water in:( I was joined by another windsurfer out on 6.5 who launched from the other end of the marina. With the tide dropping I decided to call it a day and was surprised to see I had sailed 33 miles:)

Might get a foil tomorrow before the breeze drops away?

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