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Friday 9th – Windsurf **** - The Dip, Felixstowe – cloudy start but sunshine later:).

Fin – 25.36 knot max., 23.86 knot ave ., 10.98 knot hour , 20.96 knot mile , 69.00 km ., 13.34 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Lightning 6.5 and 38 fin.

F2 Zantos 295 with 38 fin and Tushingham Lightning 6.5.

The windy year continues it is only the 9th August and this is my 6th session! After a mega 105 km. session at Point Clear and then trapping my leg between board and sail while foiling which hurt it would have been best to rest today and save myself for a trip to Southend tomorrow where winds are expected to gust to 60 mph!!!! But with three Hurrells posting on WhatsApp that they were at The Dip I could not resist so after my exercises in the garden I headed down where sails around 6.5 and smaller were being rigged. To be honest it didn’t look that windy but with my Lightning 7m being repaired I took a chance with my 6.5 with the 115 Ride. It was still cloudy as I headed out right into the messy sea caused by the River Deben and to be honest the sea wasn’t much better anywhere, a real lumpy mess. The wind was also patchy and was underpowered for most of the session but then again you defiantly didn’t want to go fast is this sea! I had a run over behind the shingle bar by the Deben but it was no better there so returned to doing runs in front of The Dip. For a Friday it was quite busy out on the water with over a dozen out during the day. Perhaps it’s best now when sailing at Felixstowe to go to The Manor especially now the council have taken a lot of our parking :( Shame really as only one of the new beach huts was being used for a couple of hours while our little car park was jammed fill which causes a real problem when trying to leave ! Also, the way the River Deben entrance is now you have shingle bars in the way and the tidal flow goes right in front of the launch which really churns things up so in anything other that low water in a NE. After getting feed up of coming off the plan I decided to try my bigger Zantos 133 lt. with the 6.5 and sods law the wind filled in so I decided to go for a trip and beat up past The Fludgers where it was even rougher!!! I was looking forward to the broad reach back but it was just too rough to go really fast but fun trying! I got back totally out of control broad with a aching back leg, I nearly backed up but decided to try my 115 one more time and had several OK runs but with the wind going patchy again I decided to call it a day having already covered 42 miles and at least the sun came out in the afternoon so 4 stars just for me. The launching groyne was full windsurfers mostly packing up now so after packing up we had a nice chat and I had my usual problem getting out of the carpark. While waiting to get van out of the carpark a police car pulls up on the grass and two very armed policer offers get out, machine guns and pistols ask if we had seen a man in camouflage clothing with a black hat/hood which sounded remarkably like Peter Cutts, lucky for him he was hiding in the back of his van so didn’t get shot this time! When I got home, Mag said that another Charity shop window had been shoot at, the second so assume they were looking for that idiot who is now playing a very dangerous game! You defiantly don’t want to see armed police on the prom at Felixstowe! I am not sure about Southend tomorrow although I have loaded my van will see in the morning, fingers crossed the Orwell Bridge is not crossed in the morning!!!!

 https://www.facebook.com/stephen.squirrell.1/media_set?set=a.10216547135443526&type=3

 http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/

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First time on the sea this year - tooka while to settle down as well powered up