Tuesday 29th October – Windsurf **** - River Stour - Levington – sunny.

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

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7m.

Foil – 19.82 knot max., 17.59 knot ave., 7.84 knot hour, 12.24 knot mile, 17.14 km., 8.67 knot Alpha.

Fin – 23.11 knot max., 20.63 knot ave., 2.08 knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 4.64 km., 13.31 knot alpha.

With wall to wall sunshine and a nice breeze forecast I was keen to get out on the foil again and with the wind coming from the NE there was only one option really, the River Stour. The wind was light first thing so I did my exercises in the sunshine, had breakfast and the wind suddenly shoot up I decided to quickly make a move and head into Essex. It would have been better to leave earlier to catch more of the tide and I would have gone to Wrabness but that’s 5 miles further on so I went to Bradfield which isn’t great at the moment as the farmer has shut off the parking meaning you have to take your trailer off to turn at the bottom of the dead-end lane where you then park all but blocking the lane. I didn’t expect this to be a problem on a quiet Monday morning. There was loads of water in the river and I needed to get a move to catch the tide. I set-up the foil first waiting for the wind to settle and in the end with it gusting to 20mph I went for my favourite foil sail my 7m Tushingham Lightning 7m and that proved ideal for most of the session. With no one to zip me into my full winter wetsuit I had to go with my Autumn one which is full of holes and with the air temperature 11 degrees it was a bit nippy but the sunshine made it OK and I didn’t get cold even though I was dumped in once or twice! This is the first time I have foiled here being capably of sustained flight and it is defiantly our best foiling venue with a easy launch and miles of water to explore even if the wind can be a little gusty, beautiful surroundings too and I had it all to myself:) I was soon up and flying and today I was concentrating of using both foot straps and the harness while sailing both upwind and down. I am far from perfect but things are moving along OK no and I could fly the full width of the river, nearly a mile here:) Going broad in the bigger gusts is challenging and I did go over the front, you can’t believe how exhilarating this is and you are only doing 18 knots, just feels like 35! I am trying to control board height too but have experienced no problems when my old formula touches down and a bit of back foot pressure soon lifts it back again. Then with the wind reaching 20 knots at least and after going off the front big style I decided to head back to check if I had to move the van further up the road? The van was fine, so I decided to try a few runs on the fin before the tide started to flow out. I was soon on my F2 Zantos 295 but it was not windy enough for the fin, when it would have been fine on the foil. I wobbled out and back but had a real senior moment when I headed for the wrong moored boat, not the one by the van but the one by the farm house towards Wrabness!!! With the wind now very light and the tide going out I started to walk towards the wrong boat which was hard enough as you were waist deep in water with an uneven bottom! I thought the boat didn’t look right so looked behind my and realised the catamaran was behind me!!! So, I had to retrace my steps and eventually got back to the launching beach just as a dark cloud and rain arrived. The wind gusted up so I had a few runs and got my days fastest time but it didn’t last long so I called it a day. So a good hour or so on the foil and a disaster on the fin but good fun none the less:)

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