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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070 |
15th July 2023 Windsurfing: Levington Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: river chop and smooth Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunshine and showers and very windy Max Speed: 21.21 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 32.50 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Saturday 15th July - Windsurf **** River Orwell at Levington ? sunshine and showers. Foil ? 21.21 knot max, 18.62 knot ave, 12.57 knot hour, 15.74 knot mile, 52.07 km., 15.54 knot alpha. Starboard Freeride 150 and a Evolution Freeride foil with a Naish Nalu 4.25. With big winds forecast coming from around lunchtime, it was supposed to gust 40/50 mph which as usual was slightly exegerated, the windspeed at Felixstowe at 5.30 is approaching 35 knots with gusts on the River Orwell easily to 30 knots in the end! So as I am not a fan of lumpy small sail/board sailing my venue of choice today was the safer River Orwell at Levington Marina where a few of had arranged to meet up around 8 to make the most of the 10.53 high tide and to get out before the winds went bonkers! I arrived first after dropping Mag off in Trimley for her daily walk, quickly followed by two more foilers Michael and Robert with winger Andy coming a little later! The tide was still fairly low but it was sunny and there was a good SW blowing up from Felixstowe docks making it pretty breezy especially on the corner. Foil boards were soon set up and then what sail, in view of the forecast everyone went for around 4m with Andy settting up his 3m wing. As usaul bu the time we were ready it had clouded over and the wind had eased, Michael was first away followed by Robert but it was still a little patchy and I thought I had rigged too small but headed out anyway and quickly flow upriver towards Pin Mill where I had a few runs but the wind here was very holey so headed to the corner hoping to find better winds. The lighter sailers were going better as a 4m short boom sail is a bit twitchy for me either on or off, ideal when the big gusts came through but it was quick to slow down if it eased back, also because of the shot runs here and the up and down nature of the wind getting upwind was slow going so I mainly stayed on the corner having some gybe practice but the really short boom did not help me fly out of the gybes in the lighter sections and it is very easy to over sheet in the sail! We had a quick shower which was not pleasant but it soon cleared and for the most part it was sunny, I even spotted a seal but not surprising not many yachts were out today, just a couple! With the wind increasing I decided to venture to the calmer waters up river as the others called it a day. I then probably had the best hour of the session sailing from Levington lagoon to the trees just short of Pin Mill where the water was fairly smooth although there was some super big gusts coming through making it very taxing on the poor old arms but I was pleased to break 21 knots, getting over 20 three times in all, I still find going fast on a foil very challenging, certainly lacking some technique or perhaps just haven?t got the balls for it:) You know when your poor old body has had enough when you start falling in so after being out in some tough conditions well over two hours it wa stime to call it a day especially with the wind now reaching 30 knots! So an interesting session using my smallest sail, mainly in the sunshine, quick snack, pack-up, shower and home for one, perfect, it even left us plenty of time to do some shopping in Lidl! Maybe another quick session here tomorrow with the winds hopefully lighter! Photo Album here |
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