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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070 |
24th May 2020 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 10/25 Surf / Sea State: smooth Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Mainly cloudy Max Speed: 19.14 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 16.35 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 24th May - Windsurf ***** - Point Clear – mainly cloudy! Starboard Formula and Slingshot Hover Glide F/Wind with Tushingham Lightning 6.5 Foil – 19.14 knot max, 17.20 knot ave (season PB)., 7.63 knot hour, 12.00 knot mile, 30.30 km., 14.87 knot alpha The wind just keeps on coming for the third day in a row and a different venue too. With the westerly wind that was forecast for today it looked good for a foiling session on the River Stour just over the border in Essex. There have been parking issues at both Wrabness always tight and Bradfield where the farmer closes his field for the winter! So, with some going to Wrabness I decided to have a look at Bradfield early as high water at Mistley was around two we arrived at 9.30 and parked in the end of the lane. This gave Mag and I plenty of time to walk just over a mile along the foreshore and through Wrabness Nature Reserve to check out the Sand Martins nesting in the small cliffs, always great to see:) The wind had looked fairly light until we reached the launching beach at Wrabness where the wind must have been gusting to 25 knots with loads of white water too. We stopped for a quick chat with Andy Mexome and son and Ian Clarke down for a sail. Andy was rigging 6.2 for a foil while Ian did similar for a fin. We walked back and noticed that several vans had arrived and they were parking in the field as the farmer had agreed to open the field:) This is such a beautiful spot to launch from and the Stour is the ideal foiling venue and after a quick catch up with the large group of foilers I moved the van into the field with a great place so Mag could see the action from the back of our little camper. I quickly set up my Slingshot foil but sail chose is harder as west here makes it hard to judge the wind strength as it is a little sheltered by some trees but it looked breezy a hundred metres out so I took a chance with my old crispy Lightning 6.5 and for the second day running was first out on the water. We aim originally was to sail broad down to Wrabness but things didn’t feel right for some reason with the wind so I switched to a beat my usually weaker point of sail on the foil and ended up at Mistley which was great fun with some really good gusts coming through! The next thing about foiling is that if you feel uncomfortable or overpowered you can sail with the board in a more conventional way only just out of the water but it still whizzes upwind! I was getting a little short of water as still a couple of hours of high so decided to head back and had some interesting fast runs back, even trying a few gybes too:) I had that part of the river all to myself as most had headed down river! After an hour and a half my three days of windsurfing was catching up especially my legs as sailing broad really takes a toll! Time for lunch with Mag by which time two more Felixstowe sailors were here giving foiling a go, it has really caught on fast here!!! Swainy even offered me ago on his swanky Exocet board and Mark Smalling who hasn’t sailed for several months was going to swop from foil to fin but in the end stuck with the foil. Although the majority were on foils there was at least a couple going well on fins including local James who only lives just up the road:) With the tide nice and high and the wind still up I decided to have another go and was glad I did as I turned a 4 star session into 5 as I managed some of my best upwind foiling ever, the secret really is you must be powered up! I also had some really exciting runs down wind and had a good wipe out when I nearly hit a large green channel bouy, as if it wasn’t big enough to see!!! After nearly making Mistley again the wind went really patchy was it was time to head back and after some fast runs the wind died and the last part was a bit of a slog but still a great day in wonderful surrounding and good to catch up with several mates we haven’t seen for ages. Time for a cuppa and chocolate bar and pack up -top day was had by all!!! Thank goodness that is the end of the wind for a few days, perhaps some foiling wind by the end of the week? The sun even managed to come out making everything look even better and great news that the field is open again:) Photo Gallery Here MK booms Here |
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