Sunday 19th - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – sunny.

Foil – 20.22 knot max (year PB), 18.35 knot ave (year PB)., 10.81 knot hour, 16.15 knot mile, 35.82 km., 14.02 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5m.

Today was originally going to be a trip to the River Stour but learned yesterday that our son Robert was coming to Felixstowe for the weekend for a surprise visit with the Grandson Arlo. So, I had a change of plan, East works OK on the River Orwell at Levington and is much closer than Bradfield, I could also get on the water much earlier which meant less travelling and more time with the family, so win win :) Had a nice Arlo hour with Arlo before heading over to the marina arriving at nine, it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get to the parking place as there was a large piece of pontoon in the way! The tide was still fairly low but you could easily launch out of the marina entrance, so with wall to wall sunshine and a good breeze I quickly set up the foil board. Sail size was a bit of a lottery as with the wind from the east you are sheltered a little by the trees over on the cliff, in the end I took a chance with 6.5 which was OK even with some big gusts coming through! Easily launch I soon found the wind line and after a few runs I made it upwind to do long runs down towards the docks in super smooth water, in the end getting a year’s best max speed and average. It was just me, the sunshine, some birds and a few yachts to chase down. It was sunny but I still needed my hat and gloves on as it was a chilly breeze! With the gybing slowly improving it was good to have a two-hour session and not go in the water:) With some really big gusts coming through and the water lumping up a little I decided to call it a day and headed in to pack up. I had been blocked in by a couple of cars so had a shower by which time the car problem was sorted and headed home. Rob was out on my bike, in fact he had come over to see me at Levington but sadly I had already gone, Mag and Arlo were out, so I headed down to the seafront in search of them but they had gone to the park. Never mind we soon meet up and took Arlo down to see the sea and throw in some stones getting some great pics too, top day:)

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