Session Details

Saturday 4th March – Windsurf **** River Stour at Wrabess – sunny periods.

Foil – 18.66 knot max, 16.70 knot ave., 11.20 knot hour, 14.42 knot mile, 36.14 km., 12.82 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 (LW) and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Bolt 6.5 m.

I thought I had better make the effort ad go for a windsurf foil today as a good breeze from the south and some sunshine forecast, I was thinking og heading to Levington but was not keen as it was going to be busy there and there are parking issues at the moment with lots of pontoons inn the way so when David Coles said he was heading to the River Stour at Bradfield, a venue I did not consider with the wind in this direction I thought I would give it a try! With high tide at 2.30 I had time to do my exercises while Mag pottered in our front garden. After breakfast we left Felixstowe at 11.15 and with the dock spur road closed after an accident there was a bit of a hold up getting out of Felixstowe but once past the dock round about we were fine, Mag and I had a pleasant drive over to deepest Essex arriving at Wrabness around midday. I set up my foil board and took it to the little beach, the wind was coming across the river from the left which is offshore at Brafield but cross shore here. There looked like a good breeze a 100m from the beach so took a chance with my 6.5, to be fair that did become a bit of a handful as the wind picked up and I might have been better off with my 5.7 or even the 5 at times, my arms are certainly suffering now:) I wa snice to have the Stour all to myself for awhile before being joined on the water by David on his longboard, James on his wing and Keith out winnndsurf foiling like me! I did a couple of long runs up to Bradfield then sailed well into Holbrook Bay but the wind went patchy so I beat back for a couple more runs down to Bradfield, with the wind gusting 20 knots I was getting knackered so returned back to our van for lunch and hear about Mags day. She did her usual walk to the nature reserve, bought some plants and picked up some hazel twigs for the garden. Mag helped pack up and we headed for home, stopping to take pics of a vibrant field of yellow rape. We made a detour to Sutton to park up to walk to see the wonderful highland cattle and were not disappointed as they were close to the fence, we can actually buy a bag of food to fed them, we will have to take Maeva one day! As we drove along the Stand the traffic on the Orwell Bridge was very slow moving so we drove round Ipswich waterfront which was surprisingly quiet, then took the country lane home seeing a large herd of deer, we turned into Levington Marina and just had enough time to pay for a years sailing before they closed and home for tea, a good day was had by all:)

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