Noah posted to the list Saturday projecting soarable weather for Sunday. Patti, when asked, sent her research, and TJ Olney's Blanchard weather web site (http://olneytj.home.comcast .net/blanchard.html) also seemed promising, so we went. We got there just in time to see Matty climb out just after others landed in a rain of ripstop. We loaded C.J. and Patti into the front seat, and Noah, Andy and TJ into the back and drove up.
On launch 45 minutes later pilots were using both the west and the south launch but soon enough only the west was working. C.J. got off cleanly, followed by Delvin, then me, with Murdock already soaring around above. Feiser launched his rigid but did not stick around so it was only paragliders soaring. I had trouble getting up with C.J. and it took 20 minutes before I had enough confidence to go farther N and find some good lift. Eventually I was able to climb to 1300 over launch (2500 msl) and head back to the Oyster Dome. It reminded me of the hiker's lookout on Tiger with all the foot travelers enjoying the sunshine on the rocks. At one point I watched Steve Pieniak, who had crossed to Chuckanut, working his way slowly back up from 600 msl. He not only got up but was able to return to launch. Matty Senior, meanwhile had gone up along the coast almost to Bellingham, turned around and made a good attempt at making it back to the LZ.
Later C.J. called to say she had landed and was getting a ride back up. I went back toward launch thinking about toplanding, but never having seen anyone do that, I decided to head to the LZ myself.
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