We missed it! 

We were waiting for the front to approach. I knew it would hit with a bang and pass pretty quickly, but all the forecasts predicted it arriving between 2pm and 4pm. I was planning to be there early to rig and wait. Ado arrived at my place at 1.30pm and we were checking the radar which showed the front back to the west of Port Phillip Bay. Then it his South Channel Island so we assumed we had the usual hour plus for it to arrive here. We were just getting redy to go rig up and the radar refreshed with the front about to hit us. I have never seen it move that fast!

We scrambled down the the inlet and as we drove in the wind was still WNW. As we were pulling gear out to rig Kato and Mat arrived and the wind swing WSW. Within seconds the dunes were a huge sandstorm and you could almost not see them. I had just started rigging the 5m, anticipating about 35-40 knots! By the time I had done it, I knew I needed the 4.6m and rigged that one too, got my wettie on, organised my GPS's. and carried my gear up to the end of the dunes This all took about 40 mins. As soon as I was ready to launch, i looked around and the wind had died back to 20-25 knots! 

So I went back and rigged the 5.4m. The wind seemed to make a slight comback, but I was underpowered on all runs. I got one good gust with a 41 peak and was walking back in another good squall as Mat and Ado flew past, but i missed that one. We waited for the wind to come back, and it did in one short squall, enough for me to get on more run at 37, but then it died completely. Mat and Kato had been sucked into another run after my last one and eneded up stuck on the other sdie of the channel with no wind. I was starting to plan how I was going to get the boat to fetch them, when they worked out that they could body drag back to the other side! 

The wind during the front was 40-50 knots for about 30 minutes! What could have been......

But it was great to get some of the old Band back together! 

Carbon Art SP40, 16.5cm Tribal assy speed, 2017 KA Koncept 5.4m, GW52 GPS

Note that the temperature dropped from 36 to 13 degrees after the front come through!