Tuesday 25th August - Windsurf **** - The Ray at Southend – sunny periods.

Fanatic Falcon Speed with 20 fin and Tushingham X-15 5.2m.

Fin – 38.35 knot max (year PB), 35.72 knot ave (year PB)., 14.65 knot hour, 28.75 knot mile (year PB), 56.81 km., 0.00 knot alpha.

I made one of my rare forays into speedsailing today with a trip to deepest Essex at The Ray in Southend-on-Sea to make the most of Storm Francis:) As usual with a trip to The Ray there is much deliberation and talking myself into it, the forecast was for really big winds especially in the afternoon and Mag really worries about me when I go :( also it was supposed to rain and I hate windsurfing in the rain!!! In the end it was too good an opportunity to miss as the wind was starting southerly, my favourite direction at The Ray, not fast but great fun doing mile runs on the east course, then turning SW and picking up in time for some speed runs so I bite the bullet yesterday and loaded my van with my Fanatic 80 and speedboard with 5.2, 5.8 and 6.4. I woke at 7 this morning and it wasn’t howling but raining but I made up my mind to travel the 70 miles and was very glad I did as had a fun day with a great crowd of speedsailers:) I had to fill up with diesel in Ipswich and then had a good run in light traffic arriving around 9 with several already there but no one in any hurry to rig as a lot of the speedsailers are not keen on southerlies and it wasn’t overly windy at this point, raining too. In fact, I got wet talking to Shemi about the joys of foiling! Then with several kitesurfers walking out we began to rig with sails probably ranging from 5 to 5.6. I rigged my smallest speed sail, my old Tushingham 5.2 and was brave enough to take my speedboard for its yearly outing! The tide was well out by the time I started the dreaded walk out, always the worst part of the day. I did not sail out of the creek but continued walking across the sand to make the most of the east course, my favourite to try for a 30 knot mile, easy here if the wind is strong enough, sadly today it wasn’t:( I did 6 runs to start, all great fun but the wind was just not strong enough for my speedboard, although it was easy to sail up that end it was hard to get the small board planing and I did shave a bit off the bottom of my fin on the first run and I was only using 20cm! I wished I had my Fanatic 80 and 5.8 for the first part of the session as it would have been way faster, in fact with the wind in the south that might always be the better option! I have the habit here of being in the wrong part of The Ray to get the best speeds and this proved right again today as the better sailors were sailing down to the pier and getting good speeds on port tact coming back! By the time I made it down there the wind had dropped and I had a struggle getting back with not enough wind to even waterstart at times! Then the wind turned SW and picked up and the spot on the corner again proved to be the fastest. Although getting knackered at this point, I pushed myself to try for 6 runs as my speeds improved, up until this point I was disappointingly slow around 32 knots only! I then had a run of 36/37’s and with my last run of the day had my best one, peaking at a pleasing 38.35, not too bad for an OAP:) It was challenging sailing, as always getting back upwind is good as you are sailing straight into steep chop, I find it best to take both feet out of the strap, sail slow and hope for the best! Then you have the start of the speed run which always gets the heart pumping! You have to waterstart, get both feet into the straps while sailing over a rolling swell, try to get to at least 25 knots before bearing off at the last minute just before you run up the sandbank, amazing fun especially in winds now 40 knots:) the only time all day I was fully powered up! With the wind increasing and the sandbanks disappearing as the tide came in it was time to call it a day. I managed to sail just past the path out in the creek and with the tide coming in fast I could push my board in the water, only having to carry it a short way at the end! As usual I was totally knackered when I reached the grass and quickly packed up as the wind went mental, the windiest it had been all day! Even though the Orwell Bridge was luckily still open it was too late and I was too tired to visit my Dad in hospital so I will do it tomorrow. I then phoned Mag to say I was still alive and had a good, fairly quiet drive home. Top day, great crowd and thank you Storm Francis, it was fun:)

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