2016-06-20 - Swell City

Monday, June 20, 2016 - Swell City

The forecast for today was not great.  No wind at all in the morning, but the possibility of a "push" in the corridor in the afternoon.

Brad

We had coffee at Dog River and Breakfast at Bette's as usual.  We then split up, with some shopping, some washing their vehicles, and others just sitting around.

Gerry was hitting his Port Jumps

The wind started to pick up as predicted in the mid afternoon, so Cam, Ross and Andreas went kiting at the bridge, while the rest of us went to Swell City.  It started off very light, with a couple of guys on very big (8m) sails.  The wind gradually started to build.  Most of the guys went out on 5.6m kites,  Harold was on a 5.3 and I was on my 6.6m Hucker.  The 6.6 worked well for the first while, but then I got totally over powered.

Gerry - Gybing

I made it back to the beach in time to watch Big Air Jim take out his 7.5m sail and big board.  I tried to convince him to take Cynthia's rig (a 5.6m sail and Fish board), but he was set on doing his own thing.  It didn't turn out well.  He got caught on the wrong side of the river when a barge came past, and then was finally able to get back to our side, but had to walk back.  (This is the second day I have seen him walking.)  His comment was that sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug.....

Blaine - swimming back after the wind died.

Karen and Ross ended the day with a kite session at the event site.  It turned out to be the windiest time of the day.  Karen says she is getting more comfortable, but she is looking forward to more (expensive) lessons tomorrow.
For a no wind day, we had a great sail.  We ate supper at 6th Street, and Brad insisted that we all go to Dairy Queen for ice cream.  (We had some leftover money from our visit to China Gorge a few days before.)

Kent enjoying his ice cream at DQ

Rene, Kent and I ended the evening with an intense few games of cribbage before bed!