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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070 |
6th August 2019 Windsurfing: Point Clear Wind Direction: SSW Wind Stength: 15/25 Surf / Sea State: flat in lagoon - swell in sea Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy start but sunshine later:). Max Speed: 30.38 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 57. (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Tuesday 6th – Windsurf ***** - Point Clear – cloudy start but sunshine later:). Fin – 30.38 knot max., 28.00 knot ave ., 14.27 knot hr., 21.24 knot mile, 105.60 km (year PB) 18.65 knot alpha. F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Lightning 7 and 36 fin. F2 Zantos 295 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8 with 39 fin. What a month August has been, now on my 4th session and it’s only the 6th, supposed to be really strong this coming Saturday but I sadly broke my lovely MK carbon boom at Southend the other week and it hasn’t been sorted yet! After yesterday’s mainly bumpy session at The Manor I was keen to try another venue today with a good WSW forecast and a late afternoon high I agreed with Andy Mexome to meet up at one of my favourite venues Point Clear in Essex. So, we had a morning at home with me doing my exercises in the sunny garden while Mag continues her house cleaning binge now that our son and his partner have moved into their new house! We even managed a quick walk up the town where I discovered I had a pic in one of the local papers:) We are staying out for the night at Arlresford again so packed the van with a few bits and left Felixstowe arriving first at the Green at 1 with plenty of water! I took a wind gauge reading on the beach and the wind went from 12 mph to over 20 so rigged 7m for the F2 Ride 282 (115lt) but by the time I had my salad and put my wetsuit on the wind had dropped and was looking very patchy on the water so rigged my least favourite 7.8 for the F2 Zantos 295. It wasn’t the best direction for Point Clear today, cross-on from the left and it was very up and down to start, defiantly not enough for the lagoon. I had some nice runs over to East Mersea beating out against the tide and the wind was strange, fairly marginal one minute followed by some 20 knots gusts! Andy had arrived and joined me on the water also with 7.8 but on his Goya 115 which handles the up and down wind much better being able to keep going through the lulls! With the wind up I decided on my first run up the River Colne, it was a little light passing East Mersea but sailed 3 miles upriver. There were some nice gusts and flattish water but it was not constant enough so decided to head back. The wind pushed me over to the Brightlingsea side so I had to do a couple of tacks to get out. There was also a windsurfing foiler out having a good sail and Andy also had a run up the river and was impressed by the huge area of flat water, a great foiling spot too! On the way back to PC I got a brief glimpse of a Harbour Porpoise, always great to see one:) Once past East Mersea you hit the stronger wind and I actually sailed across PC bay inside the rock groynes close to the beach. I then had a few runs in the lagoon but as it was high water and not a great direction for here it was a bit lumpy and not fast. The kit just didn’t feel right either and the 39cm fin was too big so I headed back to the van, had a moan about what a crap day I was having, said a quick hello to Mag, grabbed the smaller kit already on the beach and headed out for another couple of hours! My 3 Star day very quickly improved and the 7m on the 115 was just perfect with the wind now gusting to 25 mph! I had some fantastic flat out runs with F-hot fins Shaun Cook him on his 2019 slalom kit and me on my 1997 narrow F2 and we were surprisingly close with the wind now up! We had some top runs down the Colne before blasting back gybing in the entrance of the lagoon near the beach, fingers crossed that Whitey managed to get a few pics! With the tide now dropping I headed back into the lagoon with the sun now out, 25 knots of wind and all of the windsurfers gone I had the most amazing time sailing flat out really broad down the bottom of the lagoon, it felt like 30 knots on every run but when I checked the GPS later I did managed to break 30 knots once but got all my fastest times behind the shingle bank by the entrance! I have now broken 30 knots on 6 out of the 8 months so far this year, it is always nice to get over 30 knots! It also turned into a gybe feast, not dropping one the whole time I was in the flat water, a little disappointed with the alphas but they seemed pretty fast to me out on the water! With the tide dropping and no more 30 knot runs my next aim was to break the 100km mark. I had done 50n/m but needed to get over 60 n/m to be sure which takes some doing on the short runs in the lagoon. I stuck with it, just me and three kiters and managed to do it before I ran out of water. With the 60 n/m mark passed I headed back to the van. Our van was the only van left on the green as I landed at around 7.30, knackered at the end of a long challenging session especially as I had sailed 66km at lumpy Felixstowe yesterday. Mag was pleased to see me and she had been having some banter on WhatsApp with our son in Surrey saying that I must be completely bonkers for staying out so long but the conditions were too good to miss especially with the evening sun out, warm and the only windsurfer on the water, loved it:) Mag made a cuppa while I changed, then we had a yummy stir fry before I packed up two sets of kit, we had a nice sunset before heading off to park up at our spot for the night at Alresford Church. We have been joined for the night by another VW camper and with more wind forecast for tomorrow I will have to see if the old body is up to another sail???? Photo Gallery Here MK booms Here |
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