2016-06-23 The Gorge is a fickle place!

Thursday, June 23, 2016 The Wall and Roosevelt Park.

Kent says that he as never seen a day with so much potential, which turned out with so little sailing.

The day started off like any other down here.  Dog River for Coffee/Tea, where I do most of my blogging.  Then across the street to Bette's for breakfast, where we had our favorite waitress Sherie. It is always fun to check out our bill to see how she describes each of us so that she does not get our orders confused.  Today, I was Red and Black (the colour of my shirt.)

Temira's forecast was for Gusty West Wind in the afternoon from Maryhill East.  Perfect!  We would check out the Wall, and if it didn't look good there, we would head to Roosevelt.  Ross and Andreas decided to wait it out and decide where they were going after the day settled in, but the rest of us decided to head out.

I did stop at Sailworks as I left town.  Phil Soltysiak was there, so I had a nice chat with him.  He asked about Spencer and Laura and gave me a hard time because I wasn't entering any of the contests this weekend.... as if......

With this delay, I was about an hour behind the others.  As I turned off the highway and was driving past all the fruit stands on my way to The Wall, I got a call from Harold saying that the gang had decided that the Wall was not the place to be, and that they were all heading to Roosevelt.  I turned around and headed back down the highway arriving at Roosevelt around 1:00pm.

Of course, the folks there had been out in the morning, but the wind had backed off so there were only a couple of kiters and windsurfers still on the water.  No worries - we were sure that the wind would come back up.

Gerry headed out on his 5.6, and the rest started to rig. Gerry had a bit of a ride, but then the wind dropped again - then it was up - then it was down - then it was up.....

We kept thinking it would fill in.  Kent brought down all three of his boards, but didn't rig a sail until the end of the day, and then he rigged a 6/6 Hucker.

There was lots and lots of gear rigged on the beach, but there was also a big line of sailors sitting in chairs reading and/or watching the water.

A gust would go through and the river would fill with white caps, and then literally a minute or less, any sailors who were out would be struggling to get a water start.

Most of us got out on the were on the water at one point.

Blaine had a total of 8 reaches.  Rene had a similar experience.

Brad rigged and walked out, then looked at the river and then walked back.  Later he did the same thing - and never did get sailing.

Brad de-rigging after a day of no sailing.

Andreas and Ross had a similar day in different spots.  They finally went out at Lyle, but had only a 15 minute sail before the wind quite.

I think those that got out all had some runs and some claimed excellent sessions (Harold and Cynthia).  I think that on days like today the lighter sailors have a real advantage.....

I enjoyed my book "Mornings with Bernie".

We got back late.  I went to China Gorge with Kent, Rene, Harold, Gerry, Brad and Blaine, while the rest went to Double Mountain Pizza.

It was an interesting day.  There sure is no nicer place in the world to sit and wait for wind than Roosevelt Beach Park on a sunny warm day1  As Kent said we have rarely seen a day with so much potential, that just never worked......

Roosevelt Beach Park