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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2886 |
26th May 2019 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: W Wind Stength: 10/20 Surf / Sea State: river chop Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: mainly cloudy but mild with showers later. Max Speed: 26.98 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 40.47 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Sunday 26th May – windsurf ***** River Stour, Wrabness – mainly cloudy but mild with showers later. F2 Xantos 310 with 44 cm fin and Tushingham Lightning 8.5 Fin – 26.98 knot max., 25.20 knot ave., 16.79 knot hour (spot PB), 20.88 knot mile, 75 km., 17.73 knot alpha. Our 40th Wedding Anniversary today and what a wonderful 40 years it has been with Maggie and we actually went out for a meal during the week as we try to avoid busy places at weekends, especially Bank Holidays in half term which is the main reason we drove to the River Stour while several of my mates went a bit further down the coast at West Mersea. It was low water at Harwich around ten so that was another reason we went to Wrabness over Bradfield as you can get on the water much earlier here and I like it better too as the best sailing can be found in Holbrook bay where the water is much smoother with lovely mile runs across the river with the most stunning scenery:) The parking at Wrabness is a little tight at the best of times made considerably worse by some complete knob fly – tipping a pile of brick rubble, the world has completely gone to shite!!! People just give a toss anymore, bring back public flogging or at least a couple of years National Service for these complete tossers!!! God I am sounding like my Dad, must be because I am a pensioner now but we were cross as was everyone else we spoke to about the mess!!!! Rant over let’s get back to the day, a car left so I could park away from the turning circle which is a nightmare not helped by a big hole! It was sunny and warm when we arrived with a westerly breeze of 10 mph so in no hurry to rig, especially as the tide was still pretty low. Then after a cuppa, a nice chat with a local bait digger and a couple in another VW campervan but checked the wind again and it had picked up to 15 mph so I set up my big Xantos 310 and my 8.5. Then as usual by the time I got my wetsuit it had picked up and could have used smaller kit but I decided to give it a try and to be far it was pretty much perfect. Even with the wind gusting to 20 knots the big kit handles it like a dream, I might have gone a fraction faster on the 282 or 295 but the big board just laps up the lulls and I was planing none – stop for two hours! I had to walk about 160 metres twice to get my kit to sailable water but I was on the water much earlier than you can at Bradfield and it is solid sand making it easy. I then went reaching across Holbrook Bay in about 8 broad reaches hitting some full on gusts, it then took me about an hour and a half to beat back, what fun it was, out all by myself surrounded by beautiful Suffolk and Essex scenery, this is defiantly one of my favourite local venues away from the crowds:) It was great turning in the moored boats in front of the Wrabness beach huts and was getting some cracking gybes on a board I find difficult to turn on the open sea due to its length! It is also fairly flat on both sides of the river making gybing great fun and if you mess up it’s shallow so no waterstarting needed although I did hit the fin a few times! Then when I was nearing my starting spot the wall of rain appeared coming up from Manningtree so I headed back to the van and was amazed I had been out for a solid two hours. It was not much of an anniversary for Mag, she did find a nice sheltered spot behind the fallen tree on the beach watching the Sand Martins in the sandstone cliff busily feeding their young. She had some long chats with some nice ladies and only got slightly wet when the rain came! At this point had had not seen another windsurfer out but Mag said James was rigging here and there were a couple out at Bradfield. A yummy salad with Mag before heading out again to join James who was struggling unfortunately on 5.7. My plan was to beat up to Bradfield to say hello to Jason and was going well to start with and actually got my fastest speed of the day. Sadly, the rain showers were messing with the wind so I decided to return to Wrabness, shame really as I was well on my way to 100km which would have been a season best! I had a chat with James while he rigged 6.5 hoping the wind would return which sadly it didn’t and James was way under so decided to call it a day and headed back to the van for a well deserved cuppa and scone:) So even the showers couldn’t dampen a 5 star day on the Stour, the only negative was we left my wind meter on the little beach at Wrabness, perhaps we can have a trip there tomorrow for a walk somewhere? Photo Gallery Here MK Booms here 2018 Neil Pryde RS Flight – Aluminium Foil |
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