2016 Fall Gorge Trip: 2016-09-10 Sucker Day

The promise of the wind.......

Most of the guys started off the day as usual at Dog River Coffee and then breakfast. As it was Saturday, Bette's was full - so the group split up.

I decided to head up to the Hood River Fly-In Breakfast at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM). I arrived by 8:00ish, so missed the big crowds. There was still a lineup for breakfast, but the people were all friendly and the food was good. I sat across from two crusty old pilots who complained that their wives were getting so involved in quilting, that it was starting to interfere with their flying....I said "good luck with that". Both had flown solo to the breakfast.

A beautiful morning for a Fly-In.

This is what I need for the Lake - a Wiidgeon G-44 - in beautiful condition.

I wandered through the museum and had a look at some of the 180+ aircraft that had flown in for the event. There were an amazing number of restored vintage aircraft - all shined up for show.

A Waco Primary Glider - talk about hanging out in the wind.

I got back to the group around 10:30. Temira's forecast was for wind from 2:30 on, so no one was in a big hurry. Blaine, Brad, Cam and Handre went for a bike ride to the Rowena Lookout. Handre was able to keep up even though he was on a mountain bike, not a road bike.... amazing... At about noon, the guys decided to go to the Hatchery and read - waiting for the wind. I finished up yesterday's blog and then headed over as well. As I crossed the bridge, the water was glassy - waterski weather. Boats were sitting absolutely still in the middle of the river with people standing in them fishing, and there were lots of paddle boards with dogs on the front driving around in the middle. It is only a few miles up to the Hatchery from the bridge, but as I got close, I could see a wind line. When I pulled in, the guys were rigging. Amazing the difference a few miles makes.

Harold was out first, and Kent was right behind on a 4.8m Sail and his Code. Gerry was next on his 5.6. Unfortunately, Kent only got a few jibes before the wind died. Gerry never did get sailing and had to lay in the water in waterstart position to drift to shore. He said the wind wasn't strong enough to push him down-wind so he ended up walking the last hundred yards.

Kent figured he had scored the best session of the day - even if was only for 9 minutes.

René and Blaine - not sailing.....

Gerry - water starting all the way home...

We sat and watched the wind and water, hoping for the wind to increase - but to no avail.

Kent, still thinking about foils, wanted to go to the event site to watch Dale and Bruce. I thought I would head over to meet up with Cam and Eddy to see if there were any kiting opportunities. As I got to the Event Site, the kites were literally falling into the water - with people having to self-rescue all over the place. the parking lot was as full as I have ever seen it. Kites were all over the place, but none on the water. The wind and forecast had suckered everyone out and then stuck out its tongue at everyone and shut off.

The only people making it work were they guys on race gear (and only a couple of those), and the kites and boards on foils. Kent did get to talk to Dale about the foils as he hoped.

Blaine, Brad and I went over to the Family beach Park where we found Big Jim who had been sailing his big board and 7.5m sail. Blaine and Brad rigged their 6.6 sails. Blaine went out and planed some of the time. He hoped to sucker Brad and I out, but we didn't bite. He said he enjoyed his sail, except when he was down in the water waiting for a gust so he could waterstart, while a barge was bearing down on him......fortunately, there was a happy ending...

Big Jim with his 7.5m Sailworks

Blaine with his 6.6 hucker.

It was a very nice day for reading, In fact, I got half way through an interesting book called Nation that my daughter Laura had given me for Christmas.

We packed up around 6:00 and headed to 6th street for supper. Kent, Handre, Rene, and Gerry all that the large rack of ribs. Wow, that is a lot of meat!

We were home, having a glass of red wine with ice cream when Cam and Eddy came back. They had been with Ross, upstream (west) at Lyle, where the wind was apparently much better. They were on 8m kites and sailed for hours. I guess Doug's had gone off as well. Cam said he had just assumed that we were all at Doug's having a great day. When he got home and saw everyone's faces, he said he felt so bad that he didn't feel he could really make fun of us. Of course he got over that quickly.,,, If we had only known.... oh well, we weren't the only ones that got suckered......