Wednesday 20th October - Windsurf **** Point Clear – sunny and very mild.

Fin – 29.62 knot max, 27.34 knot ave ., 12.72 knot hour, 22.55 knot mile , 72.27 km ., 17.72 knot alpha.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Lightning 7m with 36 fin also Tushingham X – 15 6.4 with 30 fin.

With a SW wind supposedly gusting to 40 knots Point Clear was the only real option today especially with high water at 12.52 making it ideal. We woke to rain but that soon cleared as Mag and I left Felixstowe around nine stopping to buy a local paper as I had a pic in, so a good start to the day:) By the time we reached Point Clear just before ten the sun was out, there was loads of water and Roger Vickers was already out with 6.5 while Neil Hurrell was rigging his 6m. Parked out of the way at the end of the green as it was going to get busy today, I had brought a couple of small boards due to the forecast, my F2 Ride 77 and the Fanatic Falcon 80 but did not use either as the wind did not really play ball until much later as we were losing the water in the lagoon so went with my favourite F2 Ride 282 at 115 lt. with a small 30 cm fin. This is when I made a mistake, I rigged my little used old Tushingham X – 15 6.4 which has a large area of stitching has come away on the luff sleeve and the bottom camber keep popping off the mast which is very annoying, it’s the last time I will be using that sail! I was second out onto the water as the car park was filling up fast but sadly the wind was all over the place with WSW not being a good direction here, making it very up and down and I was rarely fully powered up:( I stuck with this combination too long before returning to the van to change to a bigger fin and rig my Tushingham Lightning 7m also on its last legs, in fact there is more sail repair tape than monofilm and when I broke a batter again late in the session I fear this sail is now destined for the skip, I am fast running out of usable sails and am in need of some new ones but the price of a set is way out of my reach! I was soon back out in the lagoon but things were still not great with the wind was still all over the place. Neil and Ian were having much more fun out to sea where the wind was much more consistent so I decided to join them. I walked over the shingle bank and was a little nervous about taking the bigger sail out to sea with the wind expected to build but I was OK and the sea was good and you could run down the swells:) As the 7m sail was not stupidly overpowered I decided to carry on up my favourite River Colne, I love it up there just my and the waders in the warm sunshine with semen interesting gusts too:) I did a couple of long runs, stopping to take some pics but with the wind increasing it was time to head back. The sea in front of Brightlingsea was now really big as the tide had turned and the wind was really pushing up the waves but I made it back to the shingle bar but was pretty knackered! The lagoon was working better now as the water level drops the water flattens and a lot of the sailors have called it a day, slalom sailors Shaun and Simon were going particularly well even if the wind was still up and down! I decided to have a few runs but thought I would struggle with my 7m with winds gusting to 30 knots but managed to stay out quite awhile and in the end, it was just me and Shaun on his latest top of the range kit blasting in the sunshine. In the end I upped my average for the session just missing getting 30 knots by a whisker with some nice gybing too when the wind was not too metal! With the water dropping it was time to head back to the van to see what sort of day Mag had had? She had a good day with a circular walk and relax in our lovely van which does not get used that much these days. So after a poor start in the lagoon things improved vastly with a trip up the Colne followed by some better sailing in the lagoon, cant have been too bad as covered nearly 45 miles, my arm now seem twice their normal length I might have tomorrow off! Yummy homemade soup in the van, then pack up before cuppa and cake being one of the last to leave for the 40 mile trip home stopping to get some diesel now the fuel problems seemed to have eased but boy has the price gone up!

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