Wednesday 13th March  – Windsurf ***  River Orwell at Levington Marina  –   Cloudy but mild.

Foil – 18.08 knot max, 16.90 knot ave, 12.76 knot hour, 15.59 knot mile, 36.73 km., 14.50 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and a Tushingham Storm 6.5m.

The day started well with an email from Felixstowe Town Council saying their latest magazine (Spring 2024) is out and I was chuffed to have one of my pics on the cover with seven more inside :) As the forecast was good, very mild and a good breeze from the SW I was keen to got out on the water but with high water around two I was in no hurry and the wind was fairly light so it gave me time to do my exercises and have breakfast. Then with the wind building I decided to give Levington a look, I should really get back on the sea but am not feeling it at the moment so headed for the easier sailing at the marina arriving at 11.30, we were having Maeva for the afternoon and Sue our lovely hairdresser was coming at 3.30 so I needed to be back. I parked fairly close to the small launch beach even though the mooring bouy chain is still there. To be honest it did not look very promising and I nearly went home but the ssw breeze picked up and I decided to give it a try. I had a few problems fitting my foil annnd even managed to stand on my Quicksilver Sunglasses breaking off an arm so not a good start:( Then with my 6.5 on I set off but had to jump in as I had a huge lump of weed on my foil! It was a funny direction which meant beating across the corner, I was finding it hard to get out across the Orwell as the wind seemed to swing half way pushing me the wrong way. I tried for the usual fast hour, it is very hard to get a decent one at this venue with the gusty wind, can be a little frustrating:( In the end I did over 20 miles, got some ok gybes but nothing fast and although mild it was cloudy, perhaps there will be some sun tomorrow? I am finding it exhausting packing up, there are no pluses in getting old! Shower and home where the lovely Maeva was very pleased to see me and boy did she look cute in my balck beanie:) Mag helped put the trailer in the garage, then Sue came to do our hair and have a good catch-up and maeva was a star as usual.

The day then ended well when Chris Page from ITV’s About Anglia featured one of my pics, my second on TV this week:)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10227332045339533