8/17/24, Saturday, Wingville - 7.5 125 liter and 19 others

[DimitriMilovich]

Great early scene at the former G'ville just after 7:30 when I drove up. A wing on the north end and a sailor in the middle.

The sailor was Jackson Romney, celebrating his birthday by windsurfing just after dawn and then the next 2.5 hours straight. Jackson was ripping around on a near-mint Fanatic Ultra Cat and a 6.0. His dad, Pete, was getting ready to head out on a 5.4 sail and a Slingshot foil. Multiple wingers were rigging and heading to the water. By the time I was rigged, there were 13, no, 15! wings out. They were flying around like giant butterflies, so the count could have been higher! Great latter-day Rush Lake but with the gear of the future on the reservoir formerly known as Grantsville and now clearly Wingville. .

With my sail and a couple others I counted a total of 5 sails (we can include Pete to make it 5), so 20 wind-powered craft out. Cool!

Wind on PC104 Grantsville from 6:30 to 10:23 was mid to high teens, ~15-18, gusting to 22-25 mph. Darn steady. With my 7.5 I had a bunch of jibe to jibe rides with immediate planers coming out of the jibes. Most of the wingers were in perpetual motion. Yahoo. Great morning until ~10:00 when a dark cloud began cresting Deseret Peak and growing, ominously. More tacks were had, but the wind got squirrely and most people headed in, derigging before the rain began around 10:30. A few squalls, with the swallows getting a late breakfast and the occasional larks flying by.

The drive back through Tooele Valley was epic with multi-pronged lightning on the Oquirrhs and, it seemed, everywhere else. Lotsa rain and huge westerly gusts at the point. Coulda turned my engine off and still would have been going 65. Fun morning with dramatic weather chasing us all the way back home.