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squiz Member  Member#: 218 Location: Registered: 11-05-2003 Diary Entries: 42 Mood: don't like winter.....too dark |
2nd January 2020 Windsurfing: Levington Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: 5/18 Surf / Sea State: flatish Air Temperature: 9 Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy Max Speed: 21.96 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: Thursday 2nd – Windsurf ** - River Orwell, Levington – cloudy. F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7m. Fin – 21.96 knot max., 21.19 knot ave., 6.39 knot hour, 10.54 knot mile, 20.50 km., 8.35 knot Alpha. I was keen to get out for my first session of 2020 today as an OK SW breeze and 9 degrees forecast even if the tide on the Orwell was not idea, high at 3.45. So, I headed down to the marina just before midday and the water was still fairly low and the parking area is still blocked by a large dredging pipe:( So I read my book and listened to the radio for awhile waiting for the tide to come in. It didn’t look overly windy and to be honest it would have been better to sail in the open sea but being chilly and I back playing up the river is always a safer option. Also, you can sail in shallow water, which means you can stay dry and sail longer. I tried the wind gauge and the onshore winds were gusting well over 20 mph with it forecast to pick up I went for 7m on my 133lt board. I had to walk a long way to find someone to zip me into my wetsuit and by the time I had carried my kit to the water the wind looked marginal at best and in the end, I should have rigged 8.5 and taken out the 147lt. board but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Also, it would have been better to foil but there was a lot of shallow water limiting where you could foil! So, I spent over two hours sailing across the bay end getting the odd gust so I managed a 20 average, managing to keep completely dry with only my hands getting cold. Towards the end of the session the wind picked up slightly and I had a couple of runs towards Pin Mill seeing loads birds, the highlight of the session! I do dislike the winter and finding enthusiasm to sail is hard, we could do with a Portland Harbour type venue on our doorstop! As it was cloudy miserable day I decided to call it a day as the light faded and had a nice chat with a wildfowler out to bag himself a couple of duck for tea and managed to pack up before it got too dark but did have to drive home in my sunglasses! Photo Gallery Here MK booms Here Windsurfing report for 2019. I have had a good windsurfing 2019 with 101 sessions including 29 on a foil but for the first time in a few years there were none abroad! I have sailed ten different venues spending a lot of time on my local rivers the Orwell and Stour. I have done next to no proper speedsailing but had two successful trips The Ray, first time getting 8 mile runs over 30 knots 30 including a 32.05 mile, best in the UK I believe:) also I improved my average to 37.71 just missing out on breaking 40 knots for the first time in the UK with a 39.81 knot max:) I also gave the Portland sailors a run for their money coming 3rd in the GPS team challenge, top in two categories, mile and distance covered, including a memorable day at Portland where I sailed 193km:) I sailed every month and concentrated on trying for sailing an hour and was actually the second highest rated UK sailor in the GPS Speedsurfing rankings:) I have taken up foiling this year and after a slow start using the dodgy pink NP foil which I couldn’t get to fly I switched to the Slingshot 76 and things have really improved, getting some nice long flights now and am now looking for a slingshot foil board! Other highlights of the year including a longboard sail up the coast from Felixstowe to Orford lighthouse, I managed to break 30 knots on 13 sessions at 5 different venues covering a total of 4111 km, that’s 2554 miles, so not bad for a pensioner, lets hope 2020 is as good! Venues :- River Orwell – Levington – 35 times River Stour – Wrabness & Bradfield – 16 times Felixstowe – The Dip & The Manor – 32 times Point Clear – 10 times West Mersea – 1 time Portland Harbour – 3 times The Ray – 2 times Alton Water – 1 time. Equipment used – Boards :- Fanatic Cat (longboard) – 12 times Starboard Formula – 29 times F2 Xantos 310 – 13 times F2 Xantos 295 – 30 times F2 Ride 282 – 21 times F2 Ride 277 4 times Fanatic Falcon 80 – 5 times Fanatic Falcon Speed – 1 time Sails :- Tushingham Lightning 9.4 – 7 times Tushingham Lightning 8.5 – 25 times Tushingham Lightning 7.8 – 19 times Tushingham Lightning 7 – 21 Tushingham Lightning 6.5 – 14 times Tushingham X 15 7 – 11 times Tushingham X 15 6.4 – 3 times Tushingham X 15 5.8 - 8 times Tushingham X 15 5.2 – 2 times Tushingham Vulcan 6 – 1 time Tushingham Storm 5.2 – 1 time Naish Nalu 4.7 – 1 time |
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