Owner:
squiz
Member
Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070
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4th August 2017
Windsurfing: Levington Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 10/22 Surf / Sea State: smooth Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: 26.14 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 60 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Friday 4th August – windsurf ***** Levington – sunny :)
26.14 kt. max., 24.85 kt. ave., 15.37 kt hr., 22.38 kt. mile, 111.2 km.,
15.12 kt alpha.
After yesterday’s tiring but fun speed session at Southend todays plan
was to meet up with Neil and Craig Hurrell at Point Clear early as the high
tide was mid-morning. I was up at six, checked Landguard weather station
and the wind was from the west at 15kts not a great direction for Point
Clear with West Mersea being better. I texted Neil and he rang back saying
they were still going to Point Clear, I said that W. Mersea might be
better? After yesterday’s 150-mile trip and with the wind dropping during
the day I decided to give Essex a miss and go to Levington. I checked The
Fludgers first but it was well off so off to the Orwell, at the marina the
barrier was closed :( I had to wait 20 minutes for someone to open it! I
parked right by the marina entrance but it didn’t look very windy! With
15kts on the gauge I rigged the big freeride kit and was on the water at
7.10:)
It was a patchy start with a few non-planning runs the wind kicked in and I
soon recorded 26 kts which was a bit of a surprise but the water hadn’t
chopped up. West is probably the best direction for Levingon as you can
sail the two miles down to Felixtowe docks, a beat down and a nice reach
back running down the swell with it only chopping up on the corner! It was
full on at times with the 8.5 needing more downhaul in wind gusting to
nearly 25kts! It was windy enough to plan most of the time flying past the
yachts and came in after a couple of hours having covered 26n/miles to
discover a four-inch tear in my sail, that’s Tushingham monofilm for
you:(
I had a snack and was going to pack up but it was such a nice day I taped
the sail and carried on just doing run after run down to the docks seeing a
seal several times while gybing by the last berth by the docks:) The water
conditions improved even more during slack water and it was super smooth
and I did the dock run in 16 times in total and soon passed 50 miles! With
the tide now turned and the wind now a bit up and down I decided to beat up
the river for a while so I could get back to the van.
I called it a day after over 5 hours on the water covering a year’s best
111 km !!! probably being my best ever session on the River Orwell at
Levington. I am now completely knackered and with no wind forecast for
several days it’s time for a rest and to enjoy our new Grandson who is
coming to Felixstowe for the first time this weekend:)
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