Grantsville Reservoir, May 11-13

[kenonstott]

Grantsville Reservoir was good to us this weekend. We just parked in one spot for a 3 day weekend and the wind just kept coming. Considering the date was set in stone a month in advance, long before any weather reports, it came out great. There were nice thermals every morning so that you already had a full day of sailing by noon. John was there every morning, George and Mike made it 2 mornings, and Linda and Sarah joined us Sunday morning. Like John posted, Friday morning saw a host of UWA members show up. John woke us up Sunday morning when he unfurled his sail as we hadn’t heard any wind yet. He got out fast and got the best rides. The morning winds at Grantsville are generally sweet and steady.

Friday and Saturday afternoons showed the other side of Grantsville with some very wild winds. You needed your whole sail quiver, sometimes on one trip across. Friday was pretty hard sailing with 15 minutes of 25 mph alternating with 15 minutes of 12 mph. But the 25 mph stints were great as I spent the whole day on my new Starboard 115 S-type. Saturday afternoon brought high 30’s gusts with much fewer holes. I went out fresh after lunch (just after Jim left for the Salt Ponds and Mike headed for A&W) for some speed trials with the new GPS. I managed to hit 30.9 mph with the S-type and then 40 minutes later I hit 33.3 mph on the little Sonic85 Race board. Both were wow moments. I haven’t brought myself to reset the GPS yet. Both times I tail walked half way across the lake in +30 gusts, managed to get the board down on the water half way to the dike, then pinned my ears back and flew until I made a last minute, panicked jibe at the dike. I had been reading the Starboard blogs on speed trials and looked at it as an engineering problem. Now, having spent an afternoon trying to see how fast the boards will go, I see it more like Russian Roulette; how close to the edge will you push it. Having put my head and shoulders through my 5.7 last year trying to keep up with John, I know too well the physical dangers. I spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to come out of every jibe planing. That seems like a saner, more enjoyable pastime. And it is more fun to watch in the videos Penny took.

The weekend sailing ended with Linda and I getting flattened by a dust devil. I should have been suspicious when we were in howling whitecaps and Sarah was in front of us in dead calm water. The wind turned north at 2:00 and we headed home.