Saturday 11th – Windsurf ***** - Point Clear – cloudy start then sunny :).

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham X - 15 7m.

Fin – 29.85 knot max., 28.42 knot ave., 17.02 (spot PB) knot hour, 21.85 knot mile, 78.10 km., 18.22 knot Alpha.

The wind just keeps on blowing and after several sessions at my local spot, Levington and with a favourable tide it was time for us to venture across the county border and visit Point Clear. With a 12.20 high Mag and I left Felixstowe early and arrived first on the Green at 9.20. As usual we were way too early and the sea was miles away so I was in no hurry to rig especially with the wind being pretty light, cloudy and chilly too! Mag checked her phone while she cooked her porridge and we discovered we had missed all the excitement back in Felixstowe. There had been a large bang which shook windows and was heard ten miles away and soon discovered that a gas canister in the back of a van had exploded in a fire, lucky there were no injuries! A few windsurfers started to turn up including Keith Farmer who also couldn’t believe how low the tide was! With the wind increasing I decided to rig my four cam 7m for either the 115 or 133 lt. boards? Now zipped into my winter suit with hat and gloves the cloudy weather making it feel a bit nippy I headed to the water with the bigger board as the wind still looked marginal. Local John Wicks just pipped me to first onto the water but was underpowered with 5.7 so I waited for a few minutes having a word with Bradfield sailor James Christopher before heading out. It was not windy enough at this point for the lagoon so I had five runs over towards East Mersea including one three mile run right up the Colne but the wind up there was a little patchy, I can’t wait to foil up there very soon. I discovered on returning that the direction had turned slightly and picked up so I headed into the lagoon in search of 30 knots. I then enjoyed a none stop two hour plus gybe feast and when the sun came out for an hour it doesn’t get much better, will a few 30 knot runs would have been great but from previous experience I know how hard it is to get a 30m knot average here but it wasn’t for the want of trying. Even with the wind gusting to nearly 30 knots it didn’t coincide with the flat water and I was underpowered when sailing broad:( The lagoon was fairly quiet, a handful of kiters but no near crashes with them today, one poor kiter nearly lost his board and got his lines in an awful tangle! So, with no 30 knot runs I concentrated on getting an OK hour not easy here with the runs in the lagoon being fairly short and involving a lot of beating so I was pleased in the end to get a spot PB hour of 17.02. I kept going and ended up the last windsurfer out and sailed 48 miles in the end so decided to call it a day as I was losing water too. One more run over to East Mersea where with the tide now going out it had really chopped up! So, another 5 Star session, out for over three hours and not getting cold and loads of wind coming for tomorrow and next week. We are entertaining tomorrow and going to look after Grandson Arlo on Tuesday/Wednesday but might be able to get out at Levington for perhaps another foil on Monday?

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