Owner:
squiz
Member
Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070
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18th August 2017
Windsurfing: The Fludgers-Felixstowe Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 10/30 Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods with squally showers! Max Speed: 25.28 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 9.71 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Friday 18th August – windsurf **** The Fludgers – sunny periods with
squally showers!
25.28 kt. max., 20.06 kt ave., 8.69 kt hr., 19.84 kt. mile, 18 km., 8.02
kt. alpha.
After yesterday’s up and down session at The Manor and with several
sailors having a similar session at The Fludgers I should have got up early
and head over to Point Clear but sadly I couldn’t face the 80-mile round
trip! So, I committed to The Fludgers, not my favourite local beach, I
dropped the van at the beach at 7 this morning to get prim parking spot as
it gets busy on sunny days and walked back along the prom with Mag which
was nice. The black clouds were rolling in and it was soon tipping it
done, torrential rain for half an hour. The ideal direction we needed at
The Fludgers is WSW but sadly it never really made it being West. With
sailors not expected to come until after 1 to make the most of the tide,
you don’t want wind and tide together here as you soon get washed up the
coast with lots of rock to get washed up on! There was a big thread on the
Felixstowe Windsurfers page about being patient and hopefully the wind
would swing back WSW. We walked up town and back along the beach and it
looked sailable. Roger Vickers was already there so I packed a sandwich and
walked down. Roger had been out on 6.5 but was way under and had lost three
groynes:( He was deciding whether it was worth rigging 7.5 when Craig
Hurrell arrived, having driven 50 miles he was going to sail so after a
little humming and haring we decided to go for a longboard beat, I rigged
8.5 and Craig 8m. We set off in nice sunshine beating 2 miles in one tack,
then a few more turns before reaching the River Orwell at the end of
Landguard beach with the sky darkening from the west! It was a nice beat,
railed up and going along nicely and we were looking forward to a good
reach back. It was a little slow to start with and we ended up sailing
right through the shipping channel before turning and having a mega reach
back, landing near the pier with me peaking at 23 knots while Craig did an
impressive 24:) We had sailed into a bit of a hole by the pier and started
wobbling out and were about half a mile out when we were hit by a big
squall!!! 30 knot winds and heavy rain made things interesting for a few
minutes, after hitting 25 knots I decided to drop in the water as I
didn’t want to be too far offshore! The sea went wild and it was
difficult to see the shore! I water started and made it ashore as the winds
soon eased! It then took me several minutes to find Craig who was still
half a mile out and seemed to be struggling back. I sailed out to see if he
was OK and he said his UJ had gone but had tied it with some spare rope. We
ran back to The Fludgers and his uj went in the strongest winds and he was
lucky not to lose his board! The wind filled in and we were nearly tempted
to try a big shortboard but it soon dropped off and there were loads of
dark clouds approaching so we decided to call it a day!
Craig was hoping to head to Bradfield for the night and a early start for a
morning sail while I hope to go to Levington early and hope the westerly
wind continues! – I just love the longboard, everyone should get one:)
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