Friday 20th September– Windsurf ***** - River Orwell – Levington - sunny.

Starboard Formula and Slingshgot Hover Glide F/Wind with Tushingham Lightning 7.8.

Foil – 19.98 knot max., 17.88 knot ave., 6.29 knot hour, 13.54 knot mile, 23.33 km., 7.30 knot alpha.

We have just returned from three weeks away in the little campervan looking after our lovely Grandson Arlo before visiting several great National Trust Sites for some top walks and nice bikes rides, nice weather too. I had two epic windsurfing session while away at Portland sailing 293 km. but couldn’t get the hang of sailing fast, local knowledge must be key so with wind forecast for a few days I was keen to get out again especially on the foil as things have just started to go well! The onshore ESE was supposed to pick up in the afternoon as the sun broke though, so we spent the morning sorting and cleaning your rather grubby VW. Then our friends the Hurrells popped around for a chat then after a sandwich I dropped Mag at Lidl and continued down to The Manor as Michael Galbraith arrived. The onshore wind looked marginal at best with the sea pretty lumpy so on my return home I checked the Landguard weather station and if anything, there was more wind showing on the River Orwell so after messaging the Felixstowe group on WhatsApp I went to Levington. I arrived first quickly followed by Neil Hurrell, Michael Galbraith and Andy Mexome. This is not a direction you normally sail here in but it is quite good cross shore from the opposite direction. It was breezy when I first rrived and nearly rigged 7m but by the time I had sorted my foil out it had dropped so went with my 7.8 which was fine, it is always gusty here so it is never right all of the time, I was under when light and over in the bigger gusts but you have to learn to sheet out. So, we had three out on foils we only Neil on a fin, first on his formula and later on his longboard. I must say that I continued where I left off earlier in the month and although far from confident, I managed lots of long runs in the air, the best yet. Sometimes I felt like a pro, really comfortable, trying to go fast broad and then heading upwind, then the next minute things went wrong and I ended up in the water. The gusty wind still doesn’t help a novice like me but being able to sail down to Felixstowe docks you had long runs to try and get everything right, sometimes I did sometimes not but great fun none the less. It is still quite scary sailing broad and then realising you are only doing 19 knots! I even chased done a big motor boat trying to surf the wake and as the tide turned and went out the wind increased and if anything, the river got even flatter. I was knackered by this point, all that uphauling was taking its toil so I decided to call it a day and even managed to foil back on a dead run! So things are moving along better now on the foiling front and perhaps I can but off getting a dedicated foil board a little longer!

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