2 categories

Very windy this morning so waited until mid-afternoon when forecast to drop. Rigged 76l/4.2m and hard work in rough chop. Worst sea for a while, maybe as windy and a big tide. Hard work going into chop as so windy and OK riding back in, hardly daring to bear off in some gusts. Outhaul rope broke and not much fun threading frayed end back through small holes. No sign of wind decreasing and walk back getting longer on big tide so packed up. Some good fun, good practice sailing the rough stuff. GPS not on for some of the time so guesstimated distance. Sebastian came for a chat and saving himself for Sunday.

2 categories

Funny old day ! After three good sessions last week I pulled a muscle in my back :( my cure for this on Thurs/Fri was three sessions on the mountain bike including a ten mile ride in the dark through the woods and as you might guess it didn't help my back. So many drugs later I woke this morning and it was a little better but with big winds forecast my only real option was to try and find some flat water, a 4m session at lumpy Felixstowe or a 6 o clock start and long walk at The Ray were not appealling so a few Felixstowe sailors headed to Point Clear. I was the first to arrive with the tide being fairly low, closely followed by Craig Hurrell and as usual sail choice is the first consideration? A group of locals walked past and said that this direction is not great for the lagoon so I didn't have much hope of finding much flat water. With winds gusting to 30 kts I took a chance on my 5.8 while Craig rigged 5m and we were the first on the water. I thought we would be blown off the water but struggled to get going with my first run only 26 kts in the gusty up and down winds. Then we had heavy rain for 15 mins and the wind disappeared :( I sat it out for a while, then as it cleared had a few runs, beating across the lagoon and then trying to go broad heading back to Point Clear but it was a struggle. I nearly went back to rig 7m on a bigger board but the wind did fill in but swung left, too much south and was coming over the marshes making it very gusty. I managed a few 30 kt runs but as usual here it's hard to get 5 good runs in and just missed out on a 30 ave:( As soon as the sea breached the shingle bar the whole lagoon chopped up making sailing fast next to impossible but the 15 kites and freeride windsurfers were having a better time. The open sea looked good too but the wind increased and 4.7 on a small freeride board would have been good but my back was playing me up and gybing was hard as I couldn't move!!! It was a very high tide and I had an interesting slow broad reach back and was pleased to make it ashore. I had a nice lunch with Mag, packed up and had a nice chat before heading home. It would have been a good day if only the wind had blown for the short time the water was flat, if I had sailed with 4.7 on my 100lt and my back wasn't knackered !!! My plan for tomorrow was maybe a session at West Mersea or perhaps Levington but I am sitting at home watching the Olympics and the only way I can get off the settee is with the help of Mag so I might have to give tomorrow a miss:(

6 categories

A nice sunny day and it was great to be back on a speed board after a 6 month break. This was the first outing for my new 5.2 Evo 8 and it felt great. :)

It was an early start and the wind came through as the course started to disappear but it was a nice session in the sun with fellow speedies.

We went out again in the evening when the Ray re-appeared and I tried for a few alphas (tricky on a 41cm wide board) but my best ones were slightly too wide to count... 52m-55m.

Southend-on-Sea
RRD Speed 41, 2014
Neilpryde RS Racing EVO 8 5.2, 2016
C3 SLINGSHOT 20