balticswell, I'm not actually sure, I thought temperature but it doesn't make much sense, perhaps someone here knows. This is a Windguru report for the wind meter maintained by the BKA shop at Bloubergstrand.
Thanks tsachuk and Strekke and those that thanked. I'll try to keep it going, although tonight I am exhausted.
Forecast was for another strong SE day, so again we started early. In fact I think I was third kite out at Dolphin Beach at around 1:30 just after it filled in, amazing to have that beach almost to oneself. There was almost no swell, and the wind-generated cross chop had not developed much yet, so I went out on 9m and managed to get some decent jumps in, tops this time at 8.4m. Clearly still some work to do for 10m, but that might come when we get some decent waves with long period providing long smooth stretches to gain speed before launching. Today despite the relative lack of chop, I still could not get full speed for jumping while staying in control. Around 2:30 David and a gang of his friends rocked up, having staged his small van at Eerstesteen, the little Nature reserve downwind or north of Big Bay (too many of us to trust my bus cards to work for everyone). By then I was already a little shot and the wind was building, so I went down to 7m, which was the right choice for me. It's always an adjustment changing kite sizes and the faster speed of the 7m requires different timing for the landings, but I got there eventually. My Surfr app did not seem to record all jumps however, only about 50 and on that long run I must have made over 100, often three jumps on each run out till my arms ached. As usual I had a blast doing the section outside around to Big Bay, pointing my board straight downwind and alternately using slight heelside and then toeside edges in a weaving S to keep tension in the lines with the kite at full trim, catching and surfing down the swells that were bigger out there for some reason. Still no dolphins to accompany me though. Big Bay was strangely useless, I don't know why folk ride there, some of them even gave me the evil eye as I blasted through, it was gusty and difficult cross chop with almost no waves coming in. But as usual the section just north made up for it, with typical crescent-shaped waves, albeit small, which I could slide through on toeside as if on a surfboard. And heading back out the small sharp waves made for great kickers, as long as you don't mind landing in relatively shallow water. But Eerstesteen came up rather quickly and our fun was over. David and most of his friends are better jumpers and landers than me, but we all had a great time, with, I believe, a couple of them never having done that last section. Seven of us in David's little van was rather packed, should have taken a pic, and we got back around 5. I don't think anyone was up for another session, and I still hurt quite a lot this evening. The graph shows it got pretty intense after that at Kite Beach, so good decision to go home and enjoy a shower and dinner and a nap. Sleep will come easy, although the windows in our 10th floor flat in Milnerton will be rattled by gusts long into the night. And we saw two molamolas today, always great to see these bizarre fish on a lovely, sunny, warm day with crystal clear water. It clouded over by the end of the day, but that only gave us a brilliant sunset as the sun peaked out by Lions' head just in time. Tomorrow looks mixed, the forecast for Cape Point, Platboom Beach, and Misty CLiffs/Witsands looks insane (30-40 knots), so we don't want to go there, and kitebeach looks mixed, so we may go to Witsand at the Breede River mouth instead for a change of scenery with a straight Easterly forecast. Sunday might be rainy.