Saturday 5th September - Windsurf ***** - River Stour at Bradfield – sunny periods.

Foil – 17.16 knot max, 15.93 knot ave ., 10.47 knot hour, 13.46 knot mile, 50.18 km., 10.98 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8m.

September is only 5 days old and I have been windsurfing 4 times already at four different venues - The Manor, Felixstowe, Point Clear, Levington and lastly East Anglia’s premier foiling spot, the River Stour at Bradfield.  Whatever did I do before foiling, I am just loving it and the new board is money very well spent! With high water at Mistley at 2.50 we were not in any hurry to make the 25-mile trip into Essex.  In fact, Mag went out early on her bike along the prom to Landguard and to pick up a parcel from the post office on the way back.  Then she spotted a bargain huge mirror on Facebook for the garden for £5 and went to buy that – all before 8.30!  I even had time to do my exercises in the sunny back garden.  With lunch packed we left home at 11.30.  After yesterday’s disaster - when I didn’t hitch the trailer on properly and it hit a wall in our road narrowly hitting 2 cars!! - I made sure it was on right today! The field on the banks of the Stour was filling up nicely by the time we arrived with people surprised I was a bit on the drag as I have a reputation for being early and first! The NW wind looked a bit patchy on the river as I started to untie my foil board.  Mag then told me she had some bad news – my wetsuit stuff was not in the van - I had left the trug containing my wetsuit, wet shoes, harness and buoyancy aid at home!!  Old age is seriously catching up with me and I shouldn’t be allowed outside without a carer!!!! The panic was soon over with the help of a couple of mates, first Andy M kindly loaned me a swanky Neil Pryde wetsuit and Stuart F his spare harness, that’s the second time I have borrowed that.  This also means I get to sail barefoot which I rarely do, luckily the Exocet foil board has a fantastic cushion deck which is soooooo comfortable and I will have to sail bare foot more often! Sail choice was always going to be a problem as with all river sailing it can be a tad on the gusty side but with Andy going with 7.8 I followed suit. This sail is my least favourite of all my Lightnings and it didn’t work very well yesterday coping with the big gusts. Today I used a 4.60 mast instead of a 4.90 and that seemed to work much better and after a little trouble with one of the cambers I was ready to set off, snug in my borrowed wetsuit with my gps tucked into the neck:) I got to the wind line very quick and was soon flying downwind, my favourite point of sail just mellow sailing playing with the swells enjoying the beautiful surroundings. I was following Andy who was now past Wrabness with some good gusts coming through to 20 knots keeping you on one’s toes! Andy didn’t go as far as he usually goes today and was soon beating back so I had the whole river to myself apart from a few yachts and a wing foiler, I still for the life of me cant see the point but each to his own:) You could fly really long runs right across the river past the houses on stilts at Wrabness and the impressive Holbrook school. I decided to concentrate on gybing today and only tacked a couple of times and although I haven’t completed a flying gybe I am getting closer and only fell in once trying so must be improving. I need to turn in the windier sections of the river and usually wait until I have sailed out of the wind so you stand no chance of a flying gybe then! The wind went patchy before I got to Shotley so decided to start beating back as didn’t want to be caught down here as the tide turned! I had some cracking runs back but the wind seemed to be swinging about and was a little up and down so progress upwind was not as good as I hoped. Then the highlight of the day as I approached Holbrook School in lightish winds I was treated to an old USA plane doing his aerobatic display very low right over my head, loop the loop this close to the water was very impressive:) On reaching the wide part of the river just past Wrabness I tried some faster runs but nothing that fast today. The wind was now very patchy with only the racing foilers with big kit constantly flying but by waiting for a gust I could pump up and fly and I made it back after three great hours on the water even better when the sun was out:) There was several enjoying the high water on the beach with the campsite opposite being busy again, canoes, sup’s even swimmers with Shaun out with a youngster on his board which brought back memories of doing the same with our boys when they were young! It was also great to see windsurfing legend Dave White on the beach in his wetsuit and he had a quick spin on Shaun’s windsurfer:) After changing I managed to get a few pics for a flavour of the day and enjoyed our van favourite lunch at the moment, tomato soup and a sandwich with Mag.  We certainly know how to live! So a top four days of windsurfing with some light days now before hopefully the action starts again on Tuesday!

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