Owner:
squiz
Member
Member#: 135 Location: Poole Registered: 09-02-2003 Diary Entries: 36
Mood: Optimistic!
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8th June 2019
Windsurfing: Point Clear Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: 20/30 Surf / Sea State: flatish Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods and windy Max Speed: 31.55 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 31.83 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Saturday 8th June – windsurf ***** Point Clear – sunny periods and
windy
F2 Ride 282 with 30 cm fin and Tushingham X-15 7.0m.
Fanatic Falcon 80 with 28 cm fin and Tushingham X-15 5.8m.
Fin – 31.55 knot max., 29.51 knot ave., 11.10 knot hour, 17.99 knot mile,
59 km., 19.83 knot alpha.
It was usually windy for June today with named Storm Miguel arriving with
winds forecast to gust to 40 knots there was only one venue Point Clear
although a couple of mates did go to The Ray arriving at 8 this morning to
sail low water. I couldn’t face the early start, 70-mile drive and long
walk out so quickly decided against that. With high water at 4.48 you
didn’t have to arrive in Essex early but after my exercises and breakfast
and with the van loaded for a night away, we left Felixstowe at 11 arriving
on The Green an hour later to find Roger Vickers and Chris Cook already
there in Rogers campervan. I don’t think I have ever seen the tide so far
out and it was raining too so Mag put the kettle on and we had a cuppa.
More Felixstowe sailors arrived including Dolphin Paul and Andy Mexome. I
couldn’t sit there any longer so decided to start setting up and rigged
my 5.8 and 7.0 as the wind was supposed to ease during the afternoon for
the 115lt. and 80lt. Things were going well, the small kit was ready in
front of our van and I was connecting the 7m to the 282 and let go of the
sail for a second only to have a large gust lift the sail and despite a
valiant effort from Chris Cook there was a sickening crunch as the bottom
of my mast punctured poor old Rogers camper an front windscreen. To say I
felt sick to the stomach is an understatement and I quickly went over to
apologise profusely! Roger tried ringing Autoglass but they couldn’t
repair it so Chris taped the hole up and they will have to drive slowly
home later! The tide was now pretty much in enough to sail so I quickly put
my wetsuit on but as usual the 30 knot WSW wind had drooped so I took the
big kit out and was first on the water. I find it is best to get out early
as it is when I usually get my best times but I was out a fraction early as
it was still very shallow in the lagoon! It quickly improved as the tide
came in but it is a funny place and going fast seems difficult especially
as you had to bear off into the chop to get your best runs and with small
fins spin out was a problem, I spotted the seal a couple of time, he was
living dangerously with loads of boards whizzing about but only one
kitesurfer all day! I could only manage just over 31 knots, a bit
disappointing especially with the wind increasing to over 30 knots again.
It was time to head back to the beach to swop to the small kit which I do
like to sail but could not get any really good top speeds, there was a lot
of fine weed everywhere which didn’t actually catch on your fin but made
you nervous none the less! Rogers unlucky day continued when I spotted him
swimming as his boom came away from the mast when his rope broke! I think
he was able to sort it and continued sailing:) The 80lt board is great fun
to sail and gybes OK but with the wind up and down it is tiring so I headed
back. Mag was out on a walk so I decided to take the big kit out again and
got several more runs over 31 but couldn’t maintain the speed long enough
to get a 30 kt. average:( I manage a nice alpha too, in fact as usual had a
good gybing day with 10 alphas over 17 knots and I managed to break 30
knots 9 times which makes the average even more disappointing! There was
some big gusts again and while sailing flat out along the shingle bar my
out haul rope broke so I walked ashore to retie it and having been out for
over three hours, sailing nearly 60 km I decided to call it a day after one
quick trip out to sea to find it very rough and windy for my big kit! So,
no big speeds but a great days sailing making the most of Storm Miguel and
big congratulations to Andy Mexome for breaking 34 knots, by far the
fastest time here today using his RRD 90 for the first time! There must
have been more Felixstowe sailors here than locals today, a top turn out:)
Then by the time I had taken my wetsuit off, washed, had a cuppa and
derigged we had the Green all to ourselves. We then drove a few miles down
the road to park by at the delict church at Alresford for the night. We
have wall to wall sunshine and the wind has dropped so after a stir fry we
went for a nice walk around the corn fields listening to the bird song.
There were so noisy youths larking around in the church but lucky for us
they have left so we should be in for a quiet night:)
PS – I checked Felixstowe WhatsApp later in the van and it looks like
Andy’s 34 knots is actually nautical miles the distance he sailed:) Lost
on Point Clear a blue handle screwdriver, anyone pick it up ????
Photo Gallery Here
MK Booms here
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