2018 Fall Gorge Trip: Saturday

Breakfast at Bette's. Clockwise from 7:00 OClock
Big Jim, Brad, Eddy, Kent, Rene, Harold, Al, Mike, Gerry, and Blaine.
Big Air Jim, Cam, and Ross went down to the Hotel for breakfast.

The forecast was iffy.... The problem with an iffy forecast is it makes it difficult to make any positive decision about what to do for the day.

After Dog River and Bettes, the decision was to drive to Rosevelt Park. It was supposed to blow there later..... but first, we had better go to Sailworks.

The Sailworks Loft
Kent, Cam, Blaine, Rene, Bruce Peterson, Harold, Al and Big Air Jim

North of $3,000us later (a foil for Big Air Jim, and a quiver of sails for Cam), we weren't sure that Rosevelt was the call. No one wanted to be responsible for making the call. Everyone was happy to go where everyone else wanted to go. Dougs? Rufus, Arlington, Roosevelt, the Hatcher, or just the Event Site. We all agree that it has never taken us as long to make a decision about where to go. What a gong show. Eventually, we sort of decided not to decide and ended up at the Event Site.

Cam watching his new Flyer being rigged!

Well, almost all of us. Gerry and Mike left right after breakfast and did go to Roosevelt - about 1:45 away. Gerry decided to take another recovery day and save himself for a good windy day! Mike got out, and slogged at first, but then we heard that the wind kicked in later. I haven't heard from him, but when I do, I am sure it will have been his "Best Day Ever"!

Ross and Eddy went kiting at Rufus, but it was very gusty. Ross said it was "something" to experience. Very windy, then nothing, then very windy, then nothing. Eddy said he would have to de-power his kite because it was too windy, but then he would be lying in the water barely able to keep his kite in the air - then full on again. After fighting it for a few hours, they moved to Mosier, where the wind was much steadier and they had a great session to end the day.

Harold and Al started at the Hatchery. Al got out on his new 6.5 Retro, and Harold was on his 6m. They had a few hours of good sailing before the wind died. They packed up and relocated to Doug's. Al said it was "Nukin". He rigged a 4.2, but the wind started to drop as he got on the water. He couldn't even water start. He re-rigged to a 5.5. Both he and Harold had another good session for an hour or two before calling it a day. Al says he definitely got enough sailing for the day!

The rest of us stayed at the event site and foiled. While the wind was up and down, it was much more controlled foiling than yesterday. I think everyone got foiling for at least part of the time.

Kent had a great session chasing Jim Mudry. He sent me this...

What a day. I headed out on my 5.2 today and Jim chased me down yelling “let me take you on a tour, follow me!”. Jim then took me for a foil downwinder. Swells were small, 3 or 4 feet. The rides were great. I only foiled out of the wave 4 or 5 times, kind of like a nuclear submarine blowing ballast and exploding out of the wave face. After foiling down the swells we sailed under the bridge, the wind off the pylons was a swirl that knocked me down the first time. Amazing wind shadow! We played for a bit near the bridge until Jim was tired. So he sailed into the marina to sit on the pier... yes he foiled right up to the pier and sat on it. Then we foiled upwind out of the marina, road some more swells and then back to event site to rerig!

Kent's track.

Dale Cook was cruising by all day doing 360's and chasing everyone around. It is a lot of fun sailing close to Dale, Bruce, and Jim, even if we can't keep up. Jim spends a lot of time coaching us. He will sneak up behind us and then give us some advice; then check on us again later to see how we are doing.

For a couple of hours, the wind came up to windsurf speeds but then dropped again. Kent stayed out, but most of us came back to shore and decided to have lunch - which turned out to be the correct move.

Brad, Big Air Jim and Blaine - taking a break!

It is a lot of fun cruising back and forth out of the water making almost no noise. I cruised passed Phil one time near the end of the day. He and his girlfriend had come out to sail, but missed the wind so he was just slogging (still doing tricks, of course). My board was so quiet that I was able to say hi as I passed him. That is something you can't do windsurfing.

Everyone in our group seems to be advancing quickly, although Kent is the only one who really has his jibes nailed down.. or even close to it for that matter.

Big Jim had a good day - feeling in control!

The problem with foiling is knowing when to quit. The wind seemed to die, but Kent then took out his 7.0 and continued to foil. The wind then died right off but came back again as we were packing up. I am sure we could have gone out again and foiled until after dark in the light breeze.

Hanging around at the end of the day!

Ross, Eddy, Big Air Jim, Cam, Kent, Rene, and I were hungry, so we went to Double Mountain for supper. The other guys went back to the house for a beer on the deck and then walked up to have Mexican food at the top of the hill. (Quite a walk).