Saturday 6th – Windsurf ** Levington on the River Orwell – mainly cloudy.

Foil – 16.63 knot max., 14.20 knot ave., 1.56 knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 10.37 km., 8.81 knot alpha.

Starboard Formula and Slingshgot Hover Glide F/Wind with Tushingham Lightning 8.5

I wasn’t expecting much today, Andy Mexome was hoping to go foiling at Levington, then there was some talk this morning about a trip to the River Stour at Bradfield with the wind picking up slightly. I was tempted by a trip to Essex but as we are off to Ickworth House tomorrow for lunch with Hannah and Arlo (Grandson) I couldn’t face a longish trip so decided to talk a chance with Levington even if it wasn’t much after low water. I arrived at the Marina at 10.30 and with the wind a fraction off but with a few gusts out on the water I decided to rig 8.5 for the foil. I am keen to get rid of the huge Starboard Formula board and my big Zantos 310 which is slow to plan in marginal winds and replace them for a modern 135 lt. board approx. 80 cm wide that I can use for both fin and foil in 10/15 knots of wind which frees up space on my trailer especially as the formula is a pig to transport and get in and out of the water! Sadly a 2019 foil ready freerace board like a Goya Bolt 135, RRD Firestorm 135 or my favourite a JP Super Sport 137 is the best part of £2000 which is a fraction out of my price range, still there is always the Premium Bonds!!!! :) Still I digress, by the time I had my shortie on there was plenty of water to sail out of the marina entrance as I sailed up river in search of the best gusts. I got up and flying in shorts bursts but the gusts were few and far between but I did manage to get thrown off in usual luffing up fashion, I am working on that! What was interesting was sailing slowly across the river with a large number of racing yachts with brightly coloured spinnakers flying sailing straight towards me! I managed to avoid any collisions especially when the wind dropped to under 5 knots! There was also three people fishing for bass, two of them in canoes! I stopped on the far side of the river to watch the yachts sail past and take some pics before running back to the corner by the bay to see if there was any wind there? Sadly, not so it was time to call it a day and headed back to pack up. The good thing about sailing here is you can wash your wetsuit/foil under a tap by the marina. It is good that the Levington railway crossing is now open again with new gates fitted and I was home at 1.30. After lunch I tried to repair a leak in a coper pipe with a blow torch which was an epic fail and I couldn’t see why? We are having a night away in the van before meeting Arlo so we quickly loaded the van in the rain and stopped off at some friends for plumbing tips, apparently you can’t solder with water in the pipe, who knew. So, after a two-hour chat, we head the 40 miles to Bradfield Wood in-between Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds for the night and have the little car park in the middle of nowhere all to ourselves:)

 https://www.facebook.com/stephen.squirrell.1/media_set?set=a.10216318584329891&type=3

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

https://wetndryboardsports.com/windsurf/windsurf-foils/slingshot-hover-glide-fwind-windsurf-foil-2019.html?SID=810929ee0d3d94236235c95d49103b2f