2026-06-03 Three Times is the charm!

Winger Blaine!

We should have read Temirra's forecast more closely. 

We had a bit of a slow morning. I went to Sailworks to see Dale and Bruce, and to buy some foil covers for the foils I had bought last season. It was really good to see them and catch up. They were full of questions about the guy's when everyone was coming. 

Blaine went to the Event site, and Jim Mudry met him there to haul his gear up to the Hook, so Blaine could foil back and forth and not worry about going upwind. Blaine got out, but just as he stood up, the wind totally died! Damn! Fortunately Jim hadn't gone far so came back and hauled Blaine and his gear back to the Event Site. 

I headed to the Event Site around noon to catch up with Blaine, and then decide whether I would sail form there or Moiser, but Blaine was nowhere to be found. I was going to Whatsapp him, but saw he had posted that he had gone to Moiser to try to find wind there. When I arrived at Moiser, Blaine was walking back to the van in his wetsuit. The wind had died there as well, but everyone said that there was a cold front coming and that when it arrived, there would be lots of wind. 

We had lunch and waited. The wind was slow to arrive, but eventually the wind did pick up, and then it really picked up. 

Ross arrived, right when the wind picked up and went out on this 3m Kite. He went way upwind and had a great time in the swell. 

I took out my 4.5 wing, but only went partway across and came back as I was completely over powered. I went out again on a 3.5 and was still way over powered, but I could at least hang on. It was not comfortable sailing, between the current and shifty wind, the waves seemed to come from every direction. There were some big nice rollers occasionally, but there were also sections with a complete mess.... It was an interesting day. I sailed around 14km, was pretty beaten up, so I called it a day.

Blaine went out on his 3.5m wing and had a couple of good foiling reaches, and a couple of reaches on his knees. He did do one standing (taxi) jibe! He is progressing every day! Ross won the day with about 40km and was the last of us off the water. 

We sat on the grass for a while to de-brief before heading back to the condo. 

Ross couldn't help rubbing in that he had just stayed at the condo until it was sunny and then headed out, arriving at the perfect time for the wind! I guess we should have read Temirra's forecast more closely as she nailed it 100% with the mid-day lull! 

As we were packing up, Blaine noticed that there was a hole in the side of his board...  He thinks it was a windsurfer that had left his mast with the mast base attached close to his board on the beach, and had either dropped it on the board, or possibly the wind had caught the fellows sail, hitting the board.  Either way, it needed repair - Solarez to the rescue.  Blaine say he can make it look like new at home.

Kent arrived just as we were finishing supper, around 8:00. He had left Edmonton at 5:00am and had driven right through.  We had lots of fun catching up over a beer or two. We are looking forward to more sailing tomorrow!

Kent Arrives!

Blaine with a hole in his new (to him) board!