2016-06-21 - Are you a bug or a windshield?

Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - Double Dipping (Tripple for Kent).

We started off in a panic!  Temira's Forecast said it would be windy out east in the morning dropping off by noon.  We skipped Dog River and Bettes, made a quick stop at Safeway and McDonalds, then headed East.

The view from the Wall

We all arrived at the Wall by 9:30.  Gerry was first to arrive and went out on his 4.8.  A rigging frenzy followed.

Jim made the correct call and went out on his 5.2.  Yesterday he had suffered from making the wrong call and going out on his 7.0 during the peak wind.  Yesterday he was the Bug.  Today it was my turn to be the bug, and Jim was the windshield.  I followed the rest and went out on my 4.8 and 115L board.  It did not work.  I got going on the way out, and then slogged across the river three more times.  I re-rigged to my 5.6 as the wind dropped and slogged across a few more times.  Jim meanwhile was fully powered.  He kept screaming by me (3 or four times per reach) with a big grin on his face, while I struggled with my board half sunk and not able to get on a plane.

Gerry 4.8 Hucker!

The wind backed off around noon as predicted.  Most of the guy's had a good, but short, sail.  Cynthia and Cam did really well.

Kent had a good session!

As we were coming off the water, Andreas and Ross kited up from Ruffus, showing off how much range their kites have.  Andreas stopped on the far side and let Cam take his kite for a while.  Cam is trying to learn how to do jibes on a directional board so he was entertaining us with some spectacular crashes.

Andreas came up to play!

An update of the forecasts indicated that it was windier towards Hood River, so we decided to meet at Rowena.  By the time I got there, Kent was out on his 7.5m sail and big board.  He was the only person on the water, and was enjoying himself doing long powered reaches and jibing into almost no wind at the edges of the river!  The rest of us just watched for a while.

Kent on his 7.5m sail at Rowena

I left and went to the Event Site to see what was going on.  It was much windier there than at Rowena so I texted the guys to let them know.  Most of the guys headed to swell, where they had a great afternoon on 5ish sized sails.

Kent won the rigging contest with three sailing sites, and a total of four sails, three hulls, four fins, and two wetsuits......

Gerry said he went faster than ever before, but when he went to look at his GPS watch, it was gone.  He said his average speed in now getting slower and slower, unless some fish picked it up and took it down-river.  Anyway, we will never know how fast he was actually going.....

I ran into Ross and Andreas who suggested I go kiting with them.  We drove across the river and launched at the kite spot under the bridge.  It was my first time kiting in the Gorge and my fourth time out in the last 12 years.  I surprised myself and was able to keep control of the kite for the most part, and was able to kite back and forth across the river with only a few crashes and issues.   Keeping up wind was easy, because every time I lost my board and had to body drag back to it, the current sent me up wind.  By the end of the afternoon, I was starting to get almost comfortable and was able to sail upwind and downwind.  I am still not doing any "transitions".  I just drop in the water at the end of each reach and just re-start in the other direction.  Cam had a great session, making more and more of his jibes.

Ted's first day Kiting in the Gorge!

We all came to shore around 5:00, and then headed up to "Everybody Brewing", in White Salmon.
After a few call's, we convinced everyone else to come there for supper, although apparently, Cynthia had made reservations at Three Rivers which she then had to cancel, so she made it clear that Cam owes her a supper at a location which is NOT a brewery tomorrow.

The gang at Everybody Brewing in White Salmon

Most of us were early to bed after a long day on the water, although I heard that Jim stayed up late to watch a movie.  We are looking forward to more wind tomorrow.