Locust Beach (2018 April 7) Hedge. Planned on catching the 6:15 sailing bound for CB but bailed when the 5 am actuals looked really light. Headed south to Locust as a hedge on the variable late day forecast for CNL. Arrived to walk through the 'clear cut' to find warm temps, solid wind and ebbing tide creating slightly steeper than average chop. Took to the water on a well powered 4.5/92 for a nice warm-up session. After about an hour the wind increased to the point where it was more punishment than pleasure and it was time to rig down or head for Centennial - decided to head to Centennial (for the wind swell) as the water was being blown flat.
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SildeshowCentennial (2018 April 7)Determined. Graph ramped up to gusting 30 mph while on route. Arrived find Michael looking a little blurry-eyed from his 7 am arrived from his return trip from Oz and to see 33 kites out and a local neighbour saying the bay was “full”.
But the wind looked to have backed to something closer to gusting 25 mph. AG and Massimo walking in confirmed this. Wind rebounded and Richard, Brian C and Brad were all getting rides on bigish gear.
I was torn between rigging for what I saw and sensing there was more to come. This is when I got out of sync with the wind. Long walk out with big gear (5.3/115) just in time for the first pulse of heavy wind (too much). Long walk back and out for smaller gear (4.5/92) just in time for it to go all funky and patchy. Repeated two more times until the wind amped up for good and got solid for the twilight session. I was determined I was going to sample the wind swell on offer (for more than 10 minutes). AG ate his mis-session chile. And then there were three - AG, Michael and me. AG went in to catch a ride home and was replaced by Colin (who had his clothes on and was heading home when he saw it kick and came back out – good call). The swell started to roll on the edge of the second bank and there were some big smoothes (if you had enough nerve to turn off the wind with fully loaded rig – some rewards/some rag dolls). Frustrating start and solid finish. Fun ‘welcome home party’ for Michael.
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