5/14, Grants, 8.5/135L, 7.0/115L

[kenonstott]

Got there early to ugly clouds and light wind. Sailed for an hour on the 8.5 starting at 9:00 and had a good sesh practicing tacks and staying on a plane most of the time. But died back at 10:00 so I got out of the suit and had lunch thinking I would be driving home pretty quick. There was some blue sky peeking through the Stansbury’s and wanted to stay long enough to see what happened when the sky cleared. Glad I stayed as it picked up to 22-28 a little after 11:00. I wish I had rigged the 6.0 instead of the 7.0 but anyone familiar with Grants knows 11:00 isn’t the time to start a rigfest. Held on for an hour of wild rides with it eventually hitting 30 mph gusts, then it backed off to perfect 7.0 conditions for an hour, all with clear skies and sunshine. By 1:30 there were ugly clouds headed in and I hurriedly packed. When I started the car the lake was covered with whitecaps again and I wondered if I made a mistake. But then the rain started and a 200 yard high dust cloud was bearing down. It chased me all the way to the Salt Ponds before it caught up and started blowing/raining. Third 3-hour sesh this week was pretty sweet.