Sulphur was already reading 20 to 23 at the water when I got there at 11:00 Saturday. Except for a 2 hour stint on the 6.9 in the middle of the day, it was pretty much 5.0 to 6.0M conditions 11:00 to 5:30, when I quit from exhaustion (it was still ripping 5.0 conditions when I drove out). There were many great high speed rips on both the Sonic and Ride, especially on the downwind dips to miss the island. It was nice to have one of those classic, sunny, +70 degree days at Sulphur. There aren’t many left; I wore a simple wetsuit but the water is definitely getting cooler. The 1st half of the day there was only me, 2 fishing boats, and a couple of water skiers pulling up there slalom bouys by the dam (they said the water is 53 degress, time to end the season). Later, 2 other sailors showed up for that great blast of wind that started at 3:30. Almost no schlogging, great wind, warm air and even some rollers; the day rated a 10.
Saratoga was classic Utah Lake sailing on Sunday. Following the wild sailing on Saturday I was definitely a member of Team Ibuprofen; I started off wearing a sweatshirt and John’s Jacket trying to get the muscles warmed up. Hit the water at 11:00 with everyone on 4.0 to 4.7M Gorge gear. I was tail walking most of the first hour but stuck it out on the 4.7. It was fun to be back on the little HiTech. Finally at about 3:00 it backed off and John and I tried our 5.3’s. I had some good high speed runs on the Sonic but was having trouble getting on a plane. As it fell off more we decided to rate the day a 10 and head for home. It was great to have John back on the water after his month’s hiatus. John has some nice pictures with Emmanuel on Emmanuel’s log-in.
