Tuesday 4th January  – Windsurf * River Orwell at Levington Marina  – mainly cloidy.

Foil – 15.18  knot max, 9.84 knot ave, 0.51  knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 7.73 km., 4.54 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Tushingham Storm 5.2.

I was going to stay in bed after getting up to see yesterdays frosty sunrise in Felixstowe but when ITV’s Chris Page said on Facebook that there might be a good sunrise I decided to get up and drive down to Felixstowe Ferry to take some TV weather pics. I arrived at the Ferry around 7.30 and things did not look very promising as I parked behind the Martello tower walking through to the River Deben to wait for the sun to make it to the top of the bank of cloud! I got a few OK pics to send off but once again none were choosen :(

The last 3 months have been particularly bad for windsurfing with either too much wind, not enough wind or way too cold, I am getting to an age when my enthusuim is starting to wain and you have got to have some joy to go sailing so when it rains or is too cold it is best to stay at home! So when the weathermen forecast a good breeze from the SSW and a balmy 10 degrees I was looking forward to getting out on the foil for only the second time this year! With low water at 930 I gacve it time for the water to come in arriving at the marina around midday, after the sunrise the sun was then in short supply making it a gloomy grey for most of the session but it did look good out on the Orwell with the wind gusting over 20 mph, I set my foil up with the shorter mast once again making it easier to get out and then took a chance with my 5.2 which turned out to be a huge mistake as the wind turned out to be pretty light and gusty, even my 6.5 would not have been big enough :( So all I did was flouder about for over an hour getting cold feet with fingers crossed the wind would fill, sadly it did not, I only got out of the water briefly 2/3 times and I did end up in the water whwn I sailed into the mud while gybing so a complete and utter waste of time! I called it a day, had a shower to warm before joining Mag at an old friends for a cuppa and ginger bread man, its now turning cold again so that knocked sailing on the head again!!!!!

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