Sunday 1st January - Sunrise Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington – sunny periods.
Foil – 20.66 knot max, 19.38 knot ave., 13.46 knot hour, 17.83 knot mile, 42.44 km., 16.27 knot alpha.
Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Vulcan 6m.
With the Grandson Arlo visiting with son Robert and partner Hannah I have missed a few windy days but the weather has been pretty bad with loads of rain I am not bothered, December turned out to be my worst sailing month by far with only two sessions:( More great family news, our other son Dan with partners Jays lovely little daughter who arrived a month early came home yesterday, exciting times:) So after seeing the new year in well watching some crap TV and watching a few fireworks in the rain I was keen to get my first session of 2023 but also wanted to catch the first sunrise of the year so got up early and headed over to Levington, arriving at the marina at 7.20 seeing a Barn Owl on the way! The rain had cleared away and there as around 20 knots of wind from the SW with plenty of water, first job was to rig a sail in the dark so I could get a sunrise pic with and took a chance with my 6m but sadly the sky was not great, a few clouds blowing past but no sign of any red. I set up my foil board, put my winter wetsuit on and set off walking around the marina looking for someone to zip me in and got lucky when I found a nice lady cleaning the swanky showers who did it for me. I get a few pics on the marina as I walked back to my kit. The sun was now just showing above the clouds and I got my best photos of the morning. The water was dropping away and the wind seemed to have eased but I decided to stick with the 6m and was on the water just before nine. It was not great to start as I played wait for a gust with my sail only being right when the gust came through but I was flying in patches and it was lovely to be out with the weather better than of late with geese flying overhead. I did start to beat slowly towards Felixstowe docks but gave up as the river lumped up and the wind dropped. I ran back avoiding a couple of boats heading out to sea and 4/5 yachts came out to have a News Years Day race as I made it back to the marina as the wind picked up nicely:) I then had a really great hour, a tad overpowered at times but amazing fun doing 6 long near two mile runs down towards Pin Mill in smooth water getting some nice gybes, some fast miles, a decent hour and breaking 20 knots three times, good to be out with the yachts too getting ready to race:) Being out over two hours and with the wind and tide dropping it was time to pack up, shower and head for home for a family afternoon before they headed for home to Surrey in yet more rain! So a good start to the new year, fingers crossed there will be lots more to come!
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