Wednesday 14th October - Windsurf *** - River Stour at Bradfield – mainly cloudy.

Foil – 16.81 knot max, 15.83 knot ave ., 8.56 knot hour, 12.88 knot mile, 36.56 km ., 11.46 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m.

A few foilers hoped to go to the River Stour at Bradfield but because of the fairly early high water, 10.37 at Mistley we checked Landguard weather station first and with that showing 20 knots from the East it was a green light:) As I was already awake at 6.30 I decided to get up, have breakfast and head off early to see if there was a nice sunrise. I had to put my sails back into my trailer first as they had been drying in the garage but that’s when things went a little astray! I didn’t think anything was wrong until fellow Felixstowe foiler Ian Clarke turned up with my 6m sail, Mag had noticed it standing by a neighbour’s wall and messaged Ian who came round to pick it up and bring it to Essex for me. I driven off with it on the top of my trailer, I shouldn’t be allowed out by myself and I hadn’t even missed it! There was no sunrise at Felixstowe so carried on, I was a little nervous of parking in the field at Bradfield after loads of rain and planned to reserve down the lane if bad! After opening the gate to our car park, I checked the field and it was OK to park:) but sadly the wind was very light, still the sun was coming out and I got some nice pics of a lovely sky. There was loads of water but I was in no hurry to set up as hoping the wind would fill in. Then Andy, Michael, Ian and Robert arrived and after a quick catch up we decided to rig although at the time it did not look very promising:( I rigged my 8.5, the biggest sail I have used for foiling with the others going from 7 to 7.8. We set off the beach into very light winds and slowly beat out into the middle of the river, it looked breezy on the water but not enough to pump up into the air:( It is often windier down towards Wrabness so I headed down there, slowly and then after at least half an hour of slogging with my hands and feet a tad chilly, winter feels just around the corner now and it is the last outing for my summer shoes! Then our luck changed as we started to get a few gusts where you could pump up and fly:) The best wind seemed to be from Wrabness to Sutton Point and you could get some nice long runs diagonally across the river. It was a good chance for more gybe practice although that is definitely a work in progress not really helped by the bigger sail but I need to persevere, shame I didn’t crack it when it was warmer but never mind. The wind was very up and down, even overpowered for short periods but I am managing to fly for longer when the wind goes light and even better when the sun came out. With the wind going lighter and the tide turned it was time to head back and had a couple of nice runs back. I then hit the bottom so headed back to the beach and had a bit of a walk back, this venue definitely has its limitations time was especially when foiling, probably three hours max! and when the tide turns you really have to keep an eye on things as it drops quickly. Still in the end after a dodgy start we had an OK hour flying most of the time and perhaps the same again tomorrow before the wind disappears!

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