Nitinat Report July 3-5
Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:28 am
Well, Bobson didn't make it to report, so I'll have to cover for him. FAN-FLIPPING-TASTIK WEEKEND (sorry to plagiarise, Bobson). Packed 4 kids (if 6 foot plus counts still), 2 tents, assorted camping stuff, 2 boards, about 6 sails, 3 masts, assorted windsurfing gear, two massive mountainbikes, 1 large mountain unicycle, assorted biking gear, tools and supplies for bike ramp building ... wish I had a long-box pickup. Saturday started late, but so did we, so it was OK for us. Wind pretty light, I sailed 7.5, had to go to 5.8 for a half an hour, then back to 7.5.
Sunday morning started with trip to caves, I'll get Roger to post some of his pics - white cave crickets etc. Heard air show on way back up the trail, missed that, too bad. Great sail, steadily building wind - Roger got in both footstraps and harness, and made it back where he started
. I sailed gradually smaller sails till I was overpowered on 4.9, found I'd brought the 4.2 instead of 4.5, rigged it anyway, had a couple of just-powered runs then back to 4.9.
Monday started with an early morning trip with Fred S. fishing - really fast water through the Narrows, low tide made bar crossing iffy, luckily just a low swell. Loads of fish (mostly cohoe, some sockeye and one spring, that shook loose the hook in the air) and of course, dogfish. Seals, porpoises, birds - no whales this time (can't have EVERYthing at Nitinat, but almost!!!!), a low swell made one girl a little sick. Incoming strong tide meeting outgoing very strong race from Nitinat made the bar-Narrows white and frothy, pretty cool. Back for 11:30 AM start to windsurfing, went out 4.9 but overpowered soon. Switched to 4.2, had 3 straight glorious hours of powered up on this tiny sail (a little soft in holes, but 90% time fully powered!!!!). 4.5 to 5.0 would have been OK with a smaller board, I think. Made about 3/4 jibes, planed right through a couple . Found I Could make the board get in the air off a big enough ramp - scared myself 
and somehow got separated from the board in mid-air, landed well upwind of board, so no harm done to either. Took 3 1/2 hours to repack truck 
but this is the price for packing so much into 3 days!!
BTW, a new raised skinny is mostly built near 'hang time' on the bike trail. Bring body armour.
Morley
Sunday morning started with trip to caves, I'll get Roger to post some of his pics - white cave crickets etc. Heard air show on way back up the trail, missed that, too bad. Great sail, steadily building wind - Roger got in both footstraps and harness, and made it back where he started
. I sailed gradually smaller sails till I was overpowered on 4.9, found I'd brought the 4.2 instead of 4.5, rigged it anyway, had a couple of just-powered runs then back to 4.9. Monday started with an early morning trip with Fred S. fishing - really fast water through the Narrows, low tide made bar crossing iffy, luckily just a low swell. Loads of fish (mostly cohoe, some sockeye and one spring, that shook loose the hook in the air) and of course, dogfish. Seals, porpoises, birds - no whales this time (can't have EVERYthing at Nitinat, but almost!!!!), a low swell made one girl a little sick. Incoming strong tide meeting outgoing very strong race from Nitinat made the bar-Narrows white and frothy, pretty cool. Back for 11:30 AM start to windsurfing, went out 4.9 but overpowered soon. Switched to 4.2, had 3 straight glorious hours of powered up on this tiny sail (a little soft in holes, but 90% time fully powered!!!!). 4.5 to 5.0 would have been OK with a smaller board, I think. Made about 3/4 jibes, planed right through a couple
. Found I Could make the board get in the air off a big enough ramp - scared myself and somehow got separated from the board in mid-air, landed well upwind of board, so no harm done to either. Took 3 1/2 hours to repack truck but this is the price for packing so much into 3 days!!BTW, a new raised skinny is mostly built near 'hang time' on the bike trail. Bring body armour.
Morley
