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Saturday 8th June – windsurf ***** Point Clear – sunny periods and windy

F2 Ride 282 with 30 cm fin and Tushingham X-15 7.0m.

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

Fin – 31.55 knot max., 29.51 knot ave., 11.10 knot hour, 17.99 knot mile, 59 km., 19.83 knot alpha.

It was usually windy for June today with named Storm Miguel arriving with winds forecast to gust to 40 knots there was only one venue Point Clear although a couple of mates did go to The Ray arriving at 8 this morning to sail low water. I couldn’t face the early start, 70-mile drive and long walk out so quickly decided against that. With high water at 4.48 you didn’t have to arrive in Essex early but after my exercises and breakfast and with the van loaded for a night away, we left Felixstowe at 11 arriving on The Green an hour later to find Roger Vickers and Chris Cook already there in Rogers campervan. I don’t think I have ever seen the tide so far out and it was raining too so Mag put the kettle on and we had a cuppa. More Felixstowe sailors arrived including Dolphin Paul and Andy Mexome. I couldn’t sit there any longer so decided to start setting up and rigged my 5.8 and 7.0 as the wind was supposed to ease during the afternoon for the 115lt. and 80lt. Things were going well, the small kit was ready in front of our van and I was connecting the 7m to the 282 and let go of the sail for a second only to have a large gust lift the sail and despite a valiant effort from Chris Cook there was a sickening crunch as the bottom of my mast punctured poor old Rogers camper an front windscreen. To say I felt sick to the stomach is an understatement and I quickly went over to apologise profusely! Roger tried ringing Autoglass but they couldn’t repair it so Chris taped the hole up and they will have to drive slowly home later! The tide was now pretty much in enough to sail so I quickly put my wetsuit on but as usual the 30 knot WSW wind had drooped so I took the big kit out and was first on the water. I find it is best to get out early as it is when I usually get my best times but I was out a fraction early as it was still very shallow in the lagoon! It quickly improved as the tide came in but it is a funny place and going fast seems difficult especially as you had to bear off into the chop to get your best runs and with small fins spin out was a problem, I spotted the seal a couple of time, he was living dangerously with loads of boards whizzing about but only one kitesurfer all day! I could only manage just over 31 knots, a bit disappointing especially with the wind increasing to over 30 knots again. It was time to head back to the beach to swop to the small kit which I do like to sail but could not get any really good top speeds, there was a lot of fine weed everywhere which didn’t actually catch on your fin but made you nervous none the less! Rogers unlucky day continued when I spotted him swimming as his boom came away from the mast when his rope broke! I think he was able to sort it and continued sailing:) The 80lt board is great fun to sail and gybes OK but with the wind up and down it is tiring so I headed back. Mag was out on a walk so I decided to take the big kit out again and got several more runs over 31 but couldn’t maintain the speed long enough to get a 30 kt. average:( I manage a nice alpha too, in fact as usual had a good gybing day with 10 alphas over 17 knots and I managed to break 30 knots 9 times which makes the average even more disappointing! There was some big gusts again and while sailing flat out along the shingle bar my out haul rope broke so I walked ashore to retie it and having been out for over three hours, sailing nearly 60 km I decided to call it a day after one quick trip out to sea to find it very rough and windy for my big kit! So, no big speeds but a great days sailing making the most of Storm Miguel and big congratulations to Andy Mexome for breaking 34 knots, by far the fastest time here today using his RRD 90 for the first time! There must have been more Felixstowe sailors here than locals today, a top turn out:) Then by the time I had taken my wetsuit off, washed, had a cuppa and derigged we had the Green all to ourselves. We then drove a few miles down the road to park by at the delict church at Alresford for the night. We have wall to wall sunshine and the wind has dropped so after a stir fry we went for a nice walk around the corn fields listening to the bird song. There were so noisy youths larking around in the church but lucky for us they have left so we should be in for a quiet night:)

PS – I checked Felixstowe WhatsApp later in the van and it looks like Andy’s 34 knots is actually nautical miles the distance he sailed:) Lost on Point Clear a blue handle screwdriver, anyone pick it up ????

 https://www.facebook.com/stephen.squirrell.1/media_set?set=a.10215693450821944&type=3

 http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/

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shit lol, tried all sorts of mis matched kit and changed kit at the wrong time..interesting to test different combos..pult took the day. even a crap day patrik always seems to bag a 30? funny