Nitinat 2005 - trip #5 - May 27 to May 30th
Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 1:59 pm
WOW, yup that pretty well sums it up....WOW!! What a great loooooong weekend!! Left Victoria on Friday at Noon with Morley and his pickup truck packed as full as we could manage. Between the two of us we had 3 board, 6 sails, 6 masts, 4 booms and enough camping supplies to last 3 days which made it very tight.....add in an extra box full of BWD/Racing shirts and a Big Dog and it was very cozy.
We drove to Duncan pickup up food/booze and a couple of marks/weights for the weekend racing and we were off to the lake. The road was better than the week before without as much standing water but had large jagged rocks on it and I heard of 3 flats people got ....YUCK!! Arrived just after 3pm to a solid 12-14 kts. We unpacked quickly and I rigged the Hyper and Hot Sails Maui 8.0m and he rigged his big board and Retro 7.5 and after doing the informal HELLO to everyone in eyesight we were off to the water!! Sailed from 3:30 till 5:30pm in 12-15kts my in shorts and rash guard as it was HOT probably 25 degrees. NICE first session...and it gets better. AC took me out on the back of the Jet Ski to set the start/finish marks in the middle-ish of the lake(THANKS AC - YOU RULE DOOD!) probably about 300 ft deep at that spot and we were set for racing the next day(or not - wait and see). We came in and ate dinner and got ready for the evening festivities. The campsite was now filling up quickly and as we sat around the fire with W52.3 his beautiful wife/M-in-law/child we enjoyed a relaxing evening of chatting and welcoming people into the campsite. I slept in a sleeping bag inside my hypersonic board bag with a small tarp overtop(just in case). As I was laying on the beach looking up at the stars enjoying the unusually warm weather I noticed the fog bank emerging over the hills out West and the wind picking up.......I awoke at 2am to 15kts of wind and the fog bank had completely moved in but I'm guessing the P.A. Valley was still quite hot(4-casted for 31 degrees) so the wind kept up until 6am when it stopped and the bugs came out.....I got up and went for a morning walk and took care of morning business and got a cup of morning Java from Glenda who had arrived late the night B-4 with her youngest dude(who behaved like an adult all weekend - Nice work Glenda).
Saturday brought amazing Nitinat conditions.....calmness in the campground to wake up with, people slowly awakening and drinking coffee and coming out on the beach to see how the day was shaping up and at 8:30am the marine layer which was thick at 7:00am was thiner and the clear blue sky was showing in spots....8:45 the outflow appeared very light for 5-10 mins then the inflow started slowly 9:30am it was up to 10-12kts and Glenda and Morley were the first two on the lake(I'm kinda happy I didn't have my formula gear as you'll soon find out)with Glenda making great progress and tacking back and forth with ease..Morley pumping to a plane 50% of the time....wind suddenly popped up to 15-20kts and I threw on my Shorts and rash and jumped on the Hyper and 8.0 again....planing before you could say 'Holy Mother of Mary' and ripped along with the GPS at 50.0km/h my fastest recorded speed after 30 mins when it dropped off at 10am to around 10 kts.....we came in and grabbed some food and watched for 10 mins when it came in again and popped up to 15kts so we went out again. Sailed the 8.0 till about 11:30 when it was blowing 20kts so I came in and rigged up the new Severne 5.5m NCX and by now my Carve 99 had shown up(I gave it to LUD on Thursday night to bring up as there was no extra room in the Morley-mobile) so I put on the 28cm fin and got ready for ripping. Holy Moly dude's and dudette's that is a small board, tiny sail and microscopic fin to use all at once....I was preparing mentally to schlogg(yes that is the correct spelling of this word)for awhile....I confirmed with Starboard Steve that we would meet at 1pm for racing and I went out at Noon:30.......It was blowing 20-25....well I lasted about 30 mins of fun planing and blown jibes and tack when the WIND kicked in...it was now 1pm and blowing 25-30kts.....I came in and we confirmed the racing would be put off until 3pm as it was really windy and we didn't want carnage on the first racing weekend....so calmer heads prevailed and I went back out on the 5.5 and got basically blown off the water....WOW it was windy, probably 30-35kts from 1:30 till 2:30(ish) and I was able to try and hold onto my gear for 2 BAF across the lake before coming in to catch my thoughts and try it again.....at 3pm it was still blowing 25-30kts so we cancelled the racing the day and went back out and had a tonne of fun watch Tommy V. rip off some crazy duck/monkey/flip stance/twirl over the handle bars and splash!!! He is awesome!!! Dude, enjoy that shirt...your earned it!!
The wind stayed at 10-12 kts all evening with some dude on a huge (foil??) kite that was rippin all by himself for another 2 hours it seemed. The marine layer(fog bank) sat within site all day.....and started moving closer as I came off the water when it got down to 15-18kts and I didn't have enough left to jump on the 8.0 again. At 5:30pm(ish) after 7-8 hours on the water and a HUGE SH..Eating grin on my face a MILE WIDE.....looking around there we alot of these grins on the beach and still on the water.....I gave the GPS to Starboard Steve and he ripped an amazing 56.8km/h off pretty quickly....yoo-sucka!! Then gave the GPS to W52.3 and you can guess how fast he made...sad story is he made the 52.3km/h on his first run and stayed out for another 45 mins but couldn't better his speed. Morley sailed another hour with about 10-15 other sailers and about 10 kites.....after I came in I first grabbed a beer then my camera and took as many shots as I could as with the sun going down and the kites and windsurfers that were left out it was good pic taking time!! At approx 8:30pm it was time for dinner as most people were off the water and the wind started to pick up again and blew 15kts all evening till 1am(ish)....we had nice big juicy steaks, ceasar salad and many beers/smirs!! I walked around the campsite to try and make some friends and do some campsite hosting as VIC was noticeably absent from his designated site. There were many people sitting down with smiles looking completely tuckered out......I knew how they felt!! The campsite was full but not overflowing which I thought it might have been with the weather 4-cast but I guess most of the Victoria crowd stayed home as there were good winds in Victoria most of the weekend as well. Understandable. There were some good guitar campfire parties on Saturday night and the W52.3 family, Me and Morely, Glenda, Starboard Steve, Phillipe, Dave and the odd person walking by had a great 'White Mans Fire' with lots of logs and smoke and Glenda playing a quite relaxing redition of the same 4 or 5 songs all night(just joking Glenda)...the guitar music made the campfire relax time amazing!! The fogbank had completely taken over and it started to feel a little chilly in my speedo as I was getting ready for bed so I climbed into the tent with Morley but couldn't get him to share his single blowup mattress with me...go figure..??? It was a much quieter night without as many latenight party'ers singing their lungs out.
