2023-09-13 Great Sailing on a Low Wind Day

Harold had a great day!

Wednesday is Jim Mudry's day off. He suggested we all meet at River Daze Café for breakfast at 8:00 and then decide what to do for the day. River Daze is an interesting cafe/bar which we have driven past many times, but to my knowledge have never tried. The food and service was excellent.

Termira's forecast was for very light wind with a chance of something a bit stronger. Jim suggested we go to the Waterfront park, but before anyone could rig, and before most of us could even get there, the plan changed and we decided to go to the Hatchery! It turned out to be a great call.

One advantage to winging, is I can be one of the last to arrive, and still be first on the water. I went out on my 4.5 wing and had a great session. Jim Mudry came out with me on a 3.5, and I had fun chasing him, Kent, Blaine and Brad around on the swell downwind of the launch site.

Jim Mudry - ripping it up!

Kent was experimenting with the F4 Wing, and Jim had modified it with 1.5 degree negative trim on the stabilizer. It worked really well! Kent kept switching between his old rig and the F4 and back to confirm the difference before he finalized the purchase.

I caused a bit of excitement when I crashed after a jibe. When I came to the surface, I realized my wrist leash had come loose, and my wing was blowing down the river, doing summersaults as it headed to the Event Site and the Bridge. Damn. Fortunately I was close to Kent, and he chased down the wing and caught it. I started swimming to shore, not knowing what else to do and assuming that Kent would deflate the kite, but then a Windsurf Foiler stopped by and said that Kent was waiting for me to swim down to him. I headed towards Kent, and then another fellow, Andrew (who is a good friend of Dale Cook's), came by and offered to tow me to Kent. He said he had done it before. I really appreciated it. Once I got to Kent I took back my wing and was able to sail back to the beach without any difficulty. What a great place where everyone goes out of their way to help someone in distress! In addition to the 2 wingers there was a foiler who kept track of me and Kent to make sure that we were all ok and making progress towards the rescue.. Again... windsurfers/foilers are awesome!

Everyone got out sailing, wind foiling, wing foiling, kiting, or kite foiling. Vadim said he had the best day of the trip on his 5.6 sail. Al was having a great day until he went over the handle bars and landed on his head, twisting his neck! He is OK and ready to sail again tomorrow.

Vadim - best day of the trip!

Cam had a work conference call in the morning, so arrived late. A highlight for me was when he was having lunch in the parking lot and a couple of wasps took interest in his sandwich. Instead of just ignoring them and waiting for them to go away, he screamed like a little girl, panicked, threw his sandwich on the pavement and started jumping on it.... too funny!

Ross and Mike kited up from the Event Site, and worked their way up to the Hatchery and sailed with us for a few reaches!

Ross joined us for a few wave rides!

Pretty well everyone, including me went out for a second session, some for a third, and some (Kent), went for five or six sessions!

What was supposed to be a light wind day, with wind only in the morning, turned out to be a pretty good day with steady wind lasting almost to dusk.

I was worn out after my first session, so I had lunch and took some photos, but the wind kept going so I went for a second session (total almost 30km - which is good for me). I will need pain killers again tonight.

Kent was on his 3.9 all day, as was Blaine and Brad.

Jim Mudry stayed with us all day, and had a beer with us after sailing. We really appreciate his friendship. We sat around in the parking lot telling stories while people put their equipment away.

The call was to go to pFriem's for supper, but it turned out they had a water break in their kitchen so they were closed, so we went down the street to Ferment Brewing Company. The food was great. I sat with Vadim and we had a great discussion about Photography. Vadim was telling me about how he is selling photos on Adobe Stock. He has one photo of a fellow drawing an expansion joint in a concrete sidewalk, which sells all the time. He even had a sale today - it paid for his beer!

We headed back to the condo after supper, for the usual "de-brief". Early to bed.

I plan on heading home tomorrow after breakfast. I have a Radio Control Airplane event on the weekend that I would like to be back for and the forecast for Thursday is for no wind in the morning.

It has been a great trip. I am sure tomorrow will be the "BEST DAY EVER", but unfortunately I will miss it.

For all of my photos from the trip, check out my Flickr site here.