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Tuesday 18^th September – windsurf ***** The Ray – Southend – mainly cloudy with some sun late.

Walk **** approx. 4 miles along East Beach, Shoeburyness :)

Fanatic Falcon 80 and Tushingham X-15 5.8 with 28 cm fin.

35.10 knot max., 33.13 knot ave (year PB), 12.06 knot hour, 26.40 knot mile, 57.80 km., 21.53 knot alpha (year PB).

As usual hummed and hared about a 70-mile trip to Essex to have my yearly dose of The Ray, not one of Mag’s favourite destinations and I am not keen on the long walk out 9 times out of 10 with the wrong kit! Still Essex slalom sailor Simon Chippington said he was going so with days and days of wind forecast, mild too it was too good an opportunity to miss. It doesn’t take long to pack the van, Mag has got it down to a fine art and as we plan to stay away a night or two I decided to take the trailer for the first time and hoped I could find somewhere to park it free as it costs up to £9 a day to park all day at Chalkwell!!! After paying for my dentists filling from yesterday, pop a prescription in and buy a paper we left Felixstowe at 8.30 and had a good journey to Southend arriving at Chalkwell at ten with Simon rigging his 5.6 for his speedboard. I left my speedboard at home as the 80 is nearly as fast and much easier to sail! I found a spot on the path up to the rigging green to park my trailer, Mag paid the parking meter £6.50 and left a note on the trailer saying where we were parked if it also needs a ticket? I then rigged my 5.8 using my new small MK carbon boom for the first time:) Simon had already started the walk out to join two locals already out on 4.2 so the day looked promising! I started the long walk at 10.50 and the slippery wooden bridge was still under water but I made it to the creek, stopped to switch on my GW-60 watch, I still have mixed feeling about the watch, it’s nice to see your speeds while going along but it has its faults including the strap is 2cm too small and the battery life could be longer and you are lucky to get 5 hours:( With the wind probably SW although I haven’t sailed here enough to be sure we soon found out that it was a day on the East course as too broad for the west. I sailed out of the creek and down the length of the east and got my second-best mile of the day, 24 kts with a 32 kt max so looking OK. So that set the pattern for the day sail down the East course in mirror flat water but sadly not windy enough for really fast speeds, in fact I was slightly under a lot of the time and 6.4 would have been OK! It was great sharing the strip all day with four seals, who would watch you closely and if you got too close would charge into the water:) They were splashing about in front of you and I had my fingers crossed not to hit them! I tried for some alpha’s and in the end got a season best of 21.53 and would have broken my overall PB easily if I could only say on the board as I entered several gybes in excess of 31 knots!!! I love the 80 and it makes getting upwind fun which keeps walking to a bare minimum:) I stopped for a snack by the corner as two fishing boats moored on the permanent bouy. I was getting loads of 34 kt runs with a 35 max, Simon got 36 and I was hoping for a 37 but sadly it wasn’t to be but not for the want of trying! With Simon now gone and the tide now fully out I did increase the days average from 32 to 33 another season best and made it upwind a bit further and went for a mile and got a 26 including a 34 peak. With the wind going patchy now, not much fun on small kit I decided to call it a day and actually managed to sail to the path back. The killer walk done I got back to the van at 3.30 and Mag was actually awake. She had been knitting and doing puzzles so wasn’t  bored:) After a very welcome cuppa, cheese and biscuits followed by a scone it was time to pack up. The parking attendant walked past taking no notice of the trailer so that looks an OK spot to park. We then drove off along the seafront, past the pier looking for an overnight spot. After driving around the lovely old Artillery base, now private housing we found a place just outside the kitesurfing carpark at East Beach Shoeburyness which is free:) We then went for a 4 mile walk along the coast reading the notice boards telling its history, the dog walkers and young families were particularly friendly as was a man from the army camp taking the red flag for the firing range down who told us loads of interesting facts. They train bomb disposal teams here and are forever blowing up old ammunition when they are not firing out to sea. The mega long pier is actually a boom which was used in the Second World War to raise a net to keep German submarines out of the Thames! We past old forts and barracks reaching Barge pier by the nature reserve before heading back to the van, counting 20 kitesurfers sailing the tide in! A yummy lidl lasagne for tea and I will do it all over again tomorrow but will concentrate on the corner as that was the fastest spot. The Felixstowe gang had a good sail and The Manor looked particularly smooth for a windy day:)

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http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/