Saturday 23rd March  – Windsurf ****  River Orwell at Levington  –   Sunny periods and hail.
 
Foil – 19.87 knot max, 18.08 knot ave, 11.61 knot hour, 15.90 knot mile, 40.16 km., 15.65 knot alpha. 

Starboard Freeride 150 and a Naish Nalu 4.7m.

Walk **** Felixstowe prom at sunrise.

With poor old Mag doing a bit of snoring because she had another cold so once we woke up early could not get back to sleep so decided to get up and go for a Felixstowe prom sunrise walk:) We made it to the cliff top at 5.30 and with the sky mainly cloud free it was only going to be an average sunrise but it was still nice to amble to Jacocbs Ladder with the sun breaking the horizon at 5.55 and got a few OK pics. The wind was from the west which is cross off so when we turned for home it was into a bit of a chilly headwind! To get out of the breeze we turned into the Spa gardens and up past the shelter, sadly the oafs had been out in force last night with a supermarket trolley in the pond and bottles and cans thrown everywhere, what is wrong with people:( Then back to bed to sort out my pics and send some to the TV weather even though getting on at the weekend is next to impossible and do our usual word games.

Windsurf foil ****

Things were looking good for a windsurf foil with the westerly gusting to 20 knots and not as cold as expected, Robert had already messaged to say he had been to Levington Marina and could not park but I went to check things out arriving at 10.15. Parking was no problem as I could drive over the mooring chain and park near the bench. The tide was really high and there was a good breeze blowing down the river so after setting up my foil board I took a chance with 4.7 which proved ideal for most of the sessin! After a few runs near the marina to get the feel of things as it was quite breezy and lumpy before I ventured down the river towards Felixstowe docks and got some cracking runs and a few good gybes. It was nice to be out in some sunshine and not cold at all, good to sail with a few yachts including Swainy out teaching, he managed to get some cool pics of me:) Then after gybing near a huge container ship on the last berth, the sky went black and the hail arrived, not pleasant as it hit your face, I managed to fly three quarters of the way back before the wind dropped and I had a spell of floundering as I slowly beat back not helped by the tide now going out. The the sun came out again and the wind was now gusting to over 30 knots but I got back OK and decided to call it a day. I had been out the best part of two and a half hours covering 25 mies and was knackered. Pack up, shower and head for home, good day:)

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