2024 Sailing Season: 2024-06-16 Great day in Light Wind

Blaine, Brad, Kent, Cynthia, Handré and some other random guy...

We had a slow start again today. Kent and Ross went to Doug's, where Ross bought a new harness. The shopping just doesn't stop...

The forecast was for wind building in the afternoon and into the evening pretty well everywhere, but the lemmings had a hard time deciding on a sailing spot.

Big Jim and John made an early call and left for the event site around noon.

Vadim went to Doug's. The wind was up and down. He said he started on his 6.5m sail, and then switched to his 5.6, but others were on 3.5's. He told me he came in and thought about rigging to his 4.2, but decided not too. He went out again, and the wind lightened up. Everyone else had to come in, but he was able to continue to sail until the wind really dropped! Bottom line, it was up and down, but he got out and had some sailing. The best sailing was at the end of the day.

The rest of us went to Moiser. It was sunny with fairly light wind. Cynthia was first out on her 4.5 Sail. Big Air Jim, Blaine, Brad, and Kent went all our out on their 5.2 sails. Ross was on his 5m Kite, and Cam was on his 5m wing and small board and foil. He knew he should have been on bigger stuff, but he really likes the small gear. He said it was worth risking the swim.

Cynthia had a great day!

I went out on my 5.5m Wing and 899 foil and had a good session for about half an hour, but then the wind lightened up and I couldn't quite make it work. I ended up kneeling on my board and slogging all the way back across the river! I did make it back to the beach which was a win for me. After a while the wind looked like it was picking up, so I went out again, but slogged out and back. It was just not quite enough.

I came in and waited for the wind to pick up, but it just wouldn't. Frustrating, because everyone else was making it work. Cynthia had a great time chasing Kent, and keeping up to him for the most part. I think she had her best day ever! Kent thinks Cynthia needs an anchor or to leave her fin covers on so he can keep up.

Handré

Blaine said he did over 50km. I imagine the others were the same or more. Big Air Jim said he had the best day of the trip! Handré was blasting back and forth and practicing his jibes. Dale Cook came blasting down from the Event Site, and sailed around everyone for a little bit, and then he went back up to the Hatchery before going back to the Event site! He is sure fun to watch!

Big Air Jim had the best day of the trip!

I took some photos, but everyone was on the far side of the river where the wind was better, so it was a bit of a stretch to get decent photos.

Ross - on his 5m Kite

At 5:ish, I packed up my gear. I was about to head back to the Condo when Jim Mudry drove up. I had a great chat with him. He is such a positive guy. He was rigging up to go out winging. I looked at the water, but it still didn't look like I would have enough, so I decided to head back to the Condo to work on my blog. Of course, Jim told me later that the wind did pick up as soon as he headed out.

On the way back, I stopped at the Event Site where I met Big Jim and John. I think they were the days winners. It was very windy at the Event Site all afternoon, and they both had great sessions. John is really liking the 130L North Pacific board, and will probably purchase it tomorrow from Sailworks. When they talked to Dale Cook, after his session, Dale had commented that he had sailed down to Moiser and did a few runs with the guys, but that the wind was quite lighter at Moiser compared to the Event Site.

I stopped at Safeway to buy some food for supper, and was just about ready to heat it up at 7:00pm when I got a call from Kent said that the guys were heading to 6th Street Bistro, and that they had called ahead and they room for them. Considering it was Fathers day, that was a surprise. I rode my bike down and joined the gang and heard all about the great day everyone had! As usual, Chris, the owner, was happy to see us. At the end of the night, Chris came and gave us each a crumpled piece of paper. He said whoever had a number on their paper would win a Tee Shirt! Handré was the big winner!