2020-07-12 Notes and Photos from Slave Lake

Gerry's Place

I got an email from Julie about sailing on Slave Lake last Sunday

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Hello Ted

Gerry, Blaine and Eddy were sailing and kiting today. Great adventures.....Blaine lost his gear, we had to borrow a seadoo to go get Blaine's gear in the middle of the lake that floated about 2 miles away. They took it to shore and were able to get it. 

I will have to send a few pics at a time. The one with the 3 of them is "oh shit I lost my gear"

Oh Shit - I lost my gear!

Gerry

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I asked Blaine for his side of the story.......

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Hello Ted

Not sure what Julie sent you but we had a fun day in the mighty Slave lake.

We sailed out of Gerry’s.

I foiled on my 4.2 Gerry sailed on his 5.7 Eddie kited on a 10 meter we were all having a blast,  It was a little gusty, but fun. The swell was fun for me to get used to, it reminded me of skiing the moguls.

Anyhow I managed to lose my kit on a jibe. Just finishing the jibe and a gust hit me ripping the rig out of my grasp. I watched it sail away from me. So tried to swim to it but very exhausting in the waves.  Decide it was time to swim in as every time I thought I could catch it. No luck. Walked back to Gerry’s and asked who would have a jet ski or boat, we were lucky his neighbours had one, so off we went.

I asked Gerry to go out and find the kit.  He said no way I’m taking it out in that stuff.  Wise choice 😀

Thank god the jet ski was a two-man seater.

I spotted the rig. It floated approx 2 miles - very lucky to find it, as the waves were 5 ft crests.

I sailed it to shore and dragged my rig up on shore.  We returned to Gerry’s to get my van to pick it up. The rest is history.

A few pops and a nice nap, now ready to do it again today.

Gerry  Eddy  Blaine

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Blaine - flying high!

Eddy on his 10m

Eddy with his 10m - Blaine looking for his rig...

Gerry - slicing and dicing!

Then Gerry sent me an update......

Blaines Tracks showing the 3 mile down wind seadoo ride and the return trip where Blaine spotted his rig about 2 miles from where he lost it.  He should have gps'd the vehicle ride to pick it up as well. :-) 

I honestly didn't think we were going to find it. When you look at the size of the lake its a needle in a haystack, especially since it was probably at least an hour from when he lost it, swam in, and we borrowed and launched the seadoo. We lucked out as on our return trip as we passed within about a 100ft of it. I wouldn't have seen it as I was constantly getting spray in my face from the port ramps.  Luckily Blaine was shielded by me so could see. It was a little bit of a scary ride as the borrowed seadoo idled at about 2 mph and if we fell off even with the tether, it probably would be gone faster then we could swim. To make matters worse it beeped error codes the whole time. This on a seadoo that they have had lots of trouble with.  I personally towed it in once myself last year. It was kind of funny picking Blaine him up as with the 2mph idle in the big swell, I had to go by him close enough that he could grab it and try and pull himself on without tipping us.  It only took 2 tries. In the end, everything worked out.  

The only downside was the wind was the best of the day when I had to mount the rescue.