2014 Fall Gorge Trip: 2014-09-09-The Hatchery

2014-09-09

Temira’s forecast was quite dispointing today. We were expecting high winds! We were all sitting around at (Surprise) Dog River Coffee when her forecast came through. It would be a maximum of 18-21. We may be able to get sailing on our big stuff – but it is definitely not what we were expecting and hoping for….

Blaine enjoyed Bette's for Breakfast!

Discussions started about the possibility of some golfing. We took our time at Dog River, and then half the group headed to Bette’s for breakfast, while the other half went to the Hood River Hotel. This was followed by the usual shopping experience.

Blaine, Kent, Gerry and Rene

The wind in Hood river was starting to pick up, and there were white caps on the river, so we decided to head over to the Hatchery to see what was happening. Most of us fully expected to spend the day on the beach reading a book waiting to see if there was any chance of wind.

Kent - chasing a wave!

As we got closer to the hatchery on the Washington side, the river was white caps from side to side and there were kiters and sailors all over. We (and Temira) had miss-judged the wind.

Kent was first out on the water on his 4.8. I believe he was on the water at around 10:30am. The last of us off the water was Eddie – at about 5:30pm. It was not perfect sailing, but it was a lot better than our expectations based on the forecast. Most were on 4.8m or 5.2m sails. Rene and I were on our 5.6m Huckers. Ross was on his 4.2 at first, then went for a kiting session, and then went back out on his 4.2 late in the day. I think Kent and Eddy took the endurance award for the day with most time on the water.

Eddy was the last off the water!

Brad - powered

We had a little drama... first Kent did a self-rescue when his fin bolt came off. He reversed the fin and was able to get back to the beach without it falling off! (Lucky)

Then I (Ted) had a near miss as my mast base universal broke. Fortunately there is a safety backup as it is also held together with two straps – so I made it back to the beach without a problem. (I may actually have sailed several reaches with it – I wondered why things weren't working that well…) Again - very lucky - a rig separating from a board mid river is a very "Interesting" experience and you usually have to decide whether you want to keep your rig or your board...