Another Cloudy Day

From: Ron Faoro aka "Spin Doctor"
Activity_Date: 1/28/01
Remote Name: 4.33.113.55

Comments

We deserved this after chasing phantoms yesterday. I launched second after SD, but the Skyport had shaded in while I waited for a cycle. It took me five minutes to get up over the knob behind the road and I immediately took the altitude (400 feet) and cruised over to the R&R. The lift was strong there and it didn't take long before cloudbase came up at 4,200 and I sailed to La Cumbre. I sank to 300 feet below the top (about 3,700) and couldn't work anything on the face so I ambled down to Cathedral Peak. The sink put me a few hundred feet below the peak as I swung around to the front side. I patiently worked the face, thinking what some of my spin moves would mean with the huge boulders below. The strong, rowdy thermals left no doubt about their cores; they simply yanked you in the proper direction. Three times I whited out above 4,000 and made plays for La Cumbre Peak. But each time I came up short on the face and couldn't find a way up. However, the bells were always ringing at Cathedral, so I would float down around the front and ride another east- drifting thermal back up. The last thermal I took was a screamer, more lift in the cloud than below cloudbase. At 4,750 in the cloud, while turning right, my wing did an abrupt 90 degree turn to the left in one half a second without any input from me, so I took a compass bearing and headed out over town. Passed over my house (which I had never done) at 2,500 feet and cruised municipal golf course before turning back toward the Mission. Frolickers on the Rose Garden lawn scattered, but I decided on a more discreet landing at St. Anthony's Seminary (Waldorf School).

What a blast!