Sunday 5th  November  – Windsurf *** River Orwell at Levington Marina  –  sunny periods.

Fin – 27.10 knot max, 24.21 knot ave, 0.00 knot hour, 16.60 knot mile, 18.31 km., 14.80 knot alpha.

F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Bolt 5.5m.

Foil – 17.79 knot max, 16.34 knot ave, 6.13 knot hour, 15.10 knot mile, 13.86 km., 14.65 knot alpha.

Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Naish Nalu 4.7.

After yesterdays big winds and rough seas at Felixstowe where Mag and I went for a wonderful walk at The Dip wave watching but the wind turned offshore which flattened the sea so I headed over to Levington today. I had time to do my exercises first giving time for the tide to turn on the Orwell actually arriving at the marina at 11.10 just before Robert. The river looked great especially in the sunshiune with a good breeze from the wnw so with the tide low I decided to give the fin a rare go, in fact the last time I finned was on the 24th September, I set up the bigger Zantos 295 and rigged 5.5 which was OK in the gusts but 6.5 might have been better? I had an hour on the fin doing runs across the corner in choppy conditions, you couldn’t sail down to Felixstowe docks as you ran out of wind. I is very tiring sailing a fin board on the river and you needed to gybe in a gust or you found yourself in the water struggling to waterstart. I slowly increased my top speeds, 25, 26 and finially making 27 which was ok consifering the conditions, lumpy and gusty! Robert was now out foiling well with 4m so I headed back to switch over.

After a quick snack I set up my foil board and rigged 4.7 and headed out in what were now some challenging conditions with the wind gusting to 30 knots and the river very lumpy! I did have a couple of runs a little further down the river but with the 4.7 it can be very on/off, it was hard keeping the foil in the water when the big gusts hit and I ended in the water a couple of time but managed a few nice gybes but knackered of my hour of fin sailing I decided to call it a day, pack up, shower and head for home, where the ginger cake continues to be excellent:)

Not sailing tomorrow as we have to go to Ipswich so at least my arms have time to recover!                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [url=https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=stephen.squirrell.1&set=a.10226825518196671]Photo Album here[/url]