2022 Sailing Season

Kent and Brad at Dog River! (Thanks Cynthia for the photo) The forecast for today was decent wind in the morning with a slow die off, and then some decent easterlies on Saturday. Bernd, Handré, and Gerry had to get back, so left first thing early in the morning. Most of us had planned to sail today, and Kent and I were talking about sailing Saturday as well and then driving home on Sunday. When we got up and looked outside, there was no wind.  Temira's forecast confirmed it. We met at Dog River for coffee.  Big Air Jim, Cam, and Cynthia were all packed up and left right after coffee.  Brad and Blaine were a bit behind, with Andreas following. Kent and I were now planning to stay the day, but then leave early on Saturday and drive straight through, but around noon we decided that we would hit the road as well and do at least part of the drive today. It took longer to pack than we expected, but we headed off, leaving Ross by himself.  I think Karen and her sister are c...

Checking out the wind - and building up courage! The forecast today was for good wind early and then slowly dying off during the day.  In spite of that it took us all some time to get organized.  Big Air Jim and his crew were at the beach by 9:00, and I was one of the last to arrive at 10:15.  No one was out yet, but there was a lot of rigging going on. I think the trip has been hard on a lot of us.  It looked very windy, but no one was in a big hurry to get out. Eventually a few ventured out.  Then there was a re-rigging frenzy to put on smaller sails and/or foils.  In the end everyone was on the smallest sail they had to foil and most were wishing for a smaller sail.  Blaine sailed for several hours but says he never hooked in with his 3.8.   Kent was beat up on his 3.8.  Cynthia foiled 3.0 and Jim was on a 3.4. Big Air Jim I think almost everyone got out for several sessions.  In spite of the forecast, the wind blew pretty consis...

Cynthia blasting past Cam Today was almost a repeat of yesterday, except people are getting slower and slower to get moving. Kent went to Sailworks to complain to Dale, because even with his new racing front foil wing, Dale still blew by him yesterday like he was standing still.  Dale advised him to lower his boom a little, but mostly, to just suck it up, sheet in the sail, and go faster! I picked up the two new Slingshot wings that I was looking at yesterday - they will work much better for Louise!  Handré - fueling up for the day! I then went to the hospital to visit our friend Lester (a kiter from Calgary who I have met several times kiting in Cuba).  He was mountain biking yesterday, and long story short, he had a heart attack and had to be taken to hospital.  He is OK, and is in good spirits.  He will be going to Portland in a day or two to have a blockage removed.  Hopefully he will then be as good as new.  He describes things now as an inconveni...

Glenn, Cam, Ted, Kent, Handré, Blaine, Brad, Andreas, Cynthia and Alena Hood River Peloton! Kent was up early to get to Sailworks to see if they could repair his wing.  When they extracted the third bolt, the only one that didn't completely shear off, and the only one holding on the foil, they found that it was almost sheared off!  How lucky.  If it had sheared, Kent's brand new $800US front wing would have been on the bottom of the river.  Bruce spent an hour or so filling the dent in his wing while Dale and Jim extracted the sheared bolts and re-tapped the fuselage.  It now looks like new. Mostly sheared bolt!  Lucky it held together! Today was a hot and calm day.  The river was like glass most of the day. We went down to Doppio's for breakfast. (I think some of the guy's went to the Old Hotel). Bernd and I stopped at ProMotion so I could pick up my wetsuit with the new elbow patches they on it. It took a while to get organized, but eventually we wer...

Handré - sizing up the wind before heading out! I think everyone was a bit slow to get up this morning.  The forecast was for wind most of the day, and strong enough that we would probably be on the limit of our foiling abilities. A few guy's went down to Dog River for coffee, but it was a holiday in town, so Dog River and Bette's were both closed.  What were we to do!  Some of the guy's did find a spot that was open, and Brad said that the highlight of his day was when a lady walked into the coffee shop with a pet baby pig! Brad's pet pig! (Thanks Bernd for the photo) Most of us met at Sailworks.  Kent was looking at a new, even smaller, front wing so he can go even faster.  Of course the guy's helped him set it up.  I'm not sure what else was sold, but I am sure that Sailworks had another good day! We started gathering at the event site around 11:00.  It was windy, but it took a long time for people to rig.  I guess after five or six days of sai...