HGFA Skysailor Magazine

32 SKY SAILOR May | June 2019 A s 4:30 passed, Rohan ‘The Master' Holtkamp went home since the wind would be too easterly for the return run back to Jan Juc, if it did eventually come in, and he needed a sleep. Peter Spear packed up as the wind increased and said he would drive for us – too awesome! Thanks, Pete. The wind came in and swung from the SW to ESE, increasing in strength as it did – just like James said it would! We took off at around 4:45pm, flying NE to Jan Juc then turning SW to start the coastal run. At Point Addis, we soared straight to 1300ft. Usually, this height would be a struggle to obtain, 900ft being enough to make the jump to Eumeralla. With our height we flew over Eumeralla, over Point Roadknight and on to Urquarts Bluff, arriving with 700ft. Back up to 1300ft and James and Curtis thought they would wait here to allow the orographic cloud that was forming at the western end of Fairhaven beach to move back over the land. I left and flew out to the lighthouse at Fairhaven, where we would normally build up our height, however, I turned, flew over Spion Kop and began gaining height. James, who was even higher than I, took a line across the back of Aireys Inlet, across the horse paddock to Spion. Flying in a straight line, by the end of Fairhaven beach I had 2700ft and was on the orographic cloud. There was the base of the upper level cloud at around 2750ft. At Big Hill, I thought I was alone, and feeling a tad nervous, I said on the wireless that I'd decided to turn back and land on the beach at Spion. As I turned, Bruce Atkinson, James, Curtis and Jon Merli whizzed past me all in different directions heading for Lorne. I quickly changed my mind and turned back for Lorne. We all skimmed along the orographic, without loosing height. Peter Hannah came on the radio saying he'd landed at Spion in a 25kt plus wind, but was fine. Interestingly, there had been no wind there only 10 minutes earlier. At Lorne, the water below showed no sign of wind, but we could see it slowly filling in the bay from Bass Strait. Jon landed at Lorne in nil wind. We boated about above Lorne, and occasionally Curtis probed out toward Cape Patton in his C4, then returned. We had to wait for the cloud to be pushed back over the coast, otherwise we'd be flying the cloud out to sea – not a good thing to do, I heard. Bruce came on the radio saying he was going to land. James insisted that he ought to wait 10 more minutes as the cloud was slowly moving back to make the run safe. "Nope I'm off, but you guys had better not make it", were his insistent last words. The Bells coastal run James Wynd, ‘President’ of the coastal run, told us it'd come on around 4:30pm, so we waited… by Hughbert Alexander