Never Believe The Weatherman

Beautiful morning this past Sunday.  Temperatures were mild, sun was shining, brilliant blue sky with only a few clouds and the weatherman said the winds were around 10 mph building to 15 in the afternoon.  Never believe the weatherman.  I went to the kite field looking forward to a day when I could put up some larger kites and anchor them and then practice with my Vamp Devil and try out my new Mojo on longer lines.  It looked like a perfect day for kites when I left the house.  I was so ready for this day I arrived early, before anyone else.  Great.  I could get my stuff up first and have a show in the air for all the other fliers to see when they arrived.

So I hauled my cart down to the beach and began.  The wind was only about five mph or so.  I managed to get the parafoil up after a long launch and a lot of work on the line.  Another flier arrived and put up a couple of delta kites so I left my mesh delta in the bag and tried to put up my Buka-Dako-Esche.  I hadn’t flown this kite in a few months and had forgotten how many spars it had and how to put it together.  Each spar comes in three pieces and there are three spars in the bag plus the vertical spar that I left attached to the sail.  So when I first put it together, I had one spar left over.  Where did it go?  There were no empty pockets or sleeves.  So the call for help went out.  Luckily, our local kite shop owner showed up and he showed me where the last spar went.  Yes, I had missed a sleeve across the top of the sail.

Never believe the weatherman.  The kites went up and the kites came down.  We put the kites back up and they stayed up for a while and they came back down.  The winds were weak and erratic.  Even the larger delta kites were having problems and they are usually the easiest kites to keep in the sky.  Our resident KAP flier didn’t even try to put his camera up.  The way the wind was acting, there was no guarantee that his camera wouldn’t be bouncing off the sand instead of flying high.  And I didn’t get a chance to play with any of my stunt kites.  There are only a couple of weeks before our kite festival and I need more practice.

It was with some frustration that we all packed up our kites and headed to the kite shop.  Even though the kite flying wasn’t the best the day was beautiful.  It was hard not to just settle in the sand and watch the gulls and pelicans play in the waves.  But there were things to do and places to be.  So never believe the weatherman when it comes to the wind.

Fair Winds All.