Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The All Seeing Eye

We were hoping and praying for Wednesday to be the start of a long stretch of 10-15 northeast. That would be trades, if you all can remember. Tuesday opened with a bluster but some gurus thought it just might be good at Kahana. Joey was the first to blow the trumpet, as he was hiking up. Later on Alex started texting. The range did look ominously clear as I poked through the tunnels. Alex sent the final clincher: Fireman Dave's coming. He never comes to Kahana unless he's thinking of going big!

It was north, and as I approached Waiahole, there were caps on the bay, and it was very north. But I couldn't turn around. It might lighten. It's going to be good.

Alex and Woody were already in the air. Joey had landed after a very brief flight, and a few had hiked down. I was determined, and went up to north launch. Wow, things have grown on this hillside! After my wing was done weeding the launch, I finally got it over my head, got up and crossed the bay.  Alex and Dave were already there, contemplating a trip further back. Well, Dave was anyway.

I was at 2,200 feet at Kualoa, 1,000 feet below them. Penetration was minimal and I heard Alex declaring that his was getting close too, so I stayed more out front. We had been flying for an hour when we noticed this large squall developing and creeping our way. At least that's what it appeared to be doing. Alex and Dave headed back to Kahana and were planning on continuing to Punaluu. I was heading to tag Kualoa, before dashing back to Kahana to land before the squall.

Alex stated, "That thing is headed for us," and I said, "No, I think its headed over here towards me." Alex responded, "It's one of those 'all seeing eyes' and it follows you no matter which way you go." I had to agree. Upon arriving back at the Rhino, I observed that it had followed me from Kualoa.

We then decided to head back to Kualoa and outrun the moisture. Once at Kualoa, the 3K flyers headed for Hygienics football field. I settled for a hover landing at Waiahole. Kevin pulled in, picked me up, and then doubled back to pick up Alex and Dave. Thanks Kevin and Sarah for the ride.

We were coming around Crouching Lion when Alex announced the newest reading: 22 degrees. Ouch that's way north. We looked up and Rich had just launched. We are not sure what happened but he ended up in a tree. Lake is back and he was in the tree in a second and the wing was freed.

I hope we get the high cloudbase with a little less wind, a more northeasterly direction, and no wet, cloudy, eyes following us.

Roll Call for the day: Alex, Woody, Dave, Joey, BC Al, Allegra, Jonathan, Rich, Harvey, KLarry, Lake, Roland and Sidehill.

1 comment:

Alex said...

Super fun day. A bit challenging and a bit strong but man did we get a pretty view of the whole windward side from above three grand over Kaaawa. Plus some nice glimpses of the central plains and the Waianae Range! As tempting as it was to charge to the back range, I am pretty sure it would have been a challenging workout for our speed bars as opposed to our thermaling abilities! I know there are lighter days in our future.