Monday 16th November - Windsurf **** - River Orwell at Levington Marina – cloudy and cooler.

Foil – 18.09 knot max, 17.35 knot ave ., 12.11 knot hour , 16.42 knot mile , 50.31 km ., 12.25 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7m.

After giving yesterday a miss because of the heavy rain I was keen to get back onto the water today despite being a little cooler but a great direction for the River Orwell at Levington. Looks like we are going to have a few days of wind so I will stick to my local venue in the present situation and with good tides for the river, and milder too tomorrow plus with a hot shower at the marina it’s a no brainer for me, nice and quiet too:) So after breakfast I struggle into my wetsuit at home, no easy early in the morning as it takes time to get my poor old body working setting off around ten dropping Mag off enroute for her daily walk. Am first to arrive and quickly set up my foil board as Michael, Robert and Phillip arrive. I go with my favourite 7m again even though there is white water in the middle of the river and Michael is going for 5m but I am hoping to sail the long straight down to Felixstowe Docks and it is often lighter down there, also I was out with this sail on Saturday with the wind gusting to 25 knots so I hoped it would be fine! There was plenty of water in the river as I set off, in fact it was a particularly high tide today and was unlucky to take a dip in the water really quick so the gloves went on as a bit on the chilly side. I then had great fun sailing the two miles down to Felixstowe docks with some good gusts turning towards Shotley marina. After a few runs I came ashore by the docks to take pics of a coaster heading to Ipswich and of a large container ship being berthed by a couple of tugs! Michael I one run down the river and then all the other sailors headed the other way towards Pin Mill which I could not understand as this is the best part of the river with the wind in the west but I was not complaining as I enjoyed 6 long run down with some nice big gusts flying pretty much all of the time:) I was getting some nice fairly fast mile runs but my top speeds have dropped back a little, perhaps I don’t want to push it too hard when cold, also I am going for a gybe on every turn and although not flying all the way it is great fun trying, I just loss my nerve during the last part! I then had a beat up towards Pin Mill but the river was bumpy this way and the wind becoming patchy so called it a day, another top session on the Orwell covering again over 30 miles:) Swainy was there on his bike and after the weekends problems where three windsurfers got into trouble at Felixstowe and sadly it is looking like a windsurfer has lost his life at Hunstanton a large number of local sailors are in the process of sourcing VHF marine radios and Swainy is trying to get a deal as we are after 21 at the moment! So, hope to do it all again tomorrow, hopefully milder with some sun! Showered and home by 2.30 giving me time to repair a broken battern ready for tomorrow!

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