Monday 20th June - Windsurf ***** - The Dip at Felixstowe – sunny.

Longboard Fin – 21.03 knot max, 19.31 knot ave., 9.69 knot hour, 16.55 knot mile, 35.86 km., 2.73 knot alpha.

Fanatic Cat with Tushingham Lightning 8.5m and 39 fin.

I didn’t even consider today a windsurf day so had a great morning in our lovely back garden looking more like a cottage garden every day, Maggie is such a talented gardener with loads of amazing blooms:) The day started well as I did ‘wordle’ in two, got lucky with my first word, then discovered I had two pics in the local paper (EADT) doing my exercises interspersed with taking pics of the cats and we had a visit for the second time the wonderful Hummingbird moth which seems to love our Pink Palariam. I then got a WhatsApp message from windsurfing mate Ian Clarke sending a pic of me out windsurfing on Saturday asking if I was going to The Dip later, I had not even checked what the wind was doing? Then after lunch, a yummy salad in the garden and with the wind turning easterly and building I decided to go and check it out. With trailer hitched I dropped Mag off at Jacobs Ladder for her walk and continued to the beach arriving at 1.45 with Ian already there setting up his new foil gear. There was a good wind from the East and Ian was starting to rig his 6.4 but lucky for him changed his mind and went for 5.6. It looked like another great longboard cruising day to me especially with the tide now fairly high and coming in meaning you would have very little beach left at the end of the session making landing a foil challenging! I quickly set up the Fanatic Cat for its 10th outing since breaking my foil with my favourite 8.5. As the sun was out it was shortie time again which was OK but a full wetsuit would have been warmer and I left the beach at 2.15 with the track back and the dagger up I set off broad once again down the coast with the first run of 2.50 miles, not as windy as Saturday but still great fun reaching downwind in the straps, once again breaking 21 knots but a slightly slower average today. Six fantastic downwind runs in the sun got me once again the Landguard beach where the sea was pretty lumpy. In fact, there were some good waves rolling up the beach which made launching again interesting. I then started the beat back against the tide, out with a few yachts including a lovely old wooden one:) I was definitely underpowered a little now so progress was steady at best but I made it to kite beach in front of the golf course in 5 tacks. I then had two more long reaches landing at The Fludgers before returning to The Dip where there was very little beach but I landed OK in the corner. Ian and Paul Smith had been out foiling while the Swain boys Nick and Ed had been out on the fin making the most of an unexpected breeze, another top 5 star day:)

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