Morning Thermals at Cayucos

When winds are forecasted to be over 25mph by 11 am...it's a good idea to show up early if you want to fly. I had a tandem scheduled for Cayucos on Sunday, so Mike and I showed up at 10am to try and get in the air before it blew out. To our surpise, there were no white caps, even on the horizon. Just nice texture. While setting up, there were five or six turkey vultures coring up a thermal on the south side. There wasn't really any wind at the top, just thermal cycles coming up.

Mike launched, and was staying up, so Christine and I launched the tandem, I was figuring it would just be a sled ride. Really, I was happy just to get off the ground, after looking at the weather the night before and assuming it would blow hard early. As it turns out, the thermals were quite large and lifty, keeping us boating about the south bowl for quite awhile. It did start getting a little weak at one point, so Christine and I headed to the beach to land, and she had a nice treat; her kids and husband and written "Happy Mother's Day" in large letters on the sand. We used the sign as a run way, landing a few feet from her family. It was a great tandem flight. Mike landed shortly after.

We went back up the hill with Timo, and found strong, but still flyable conditions. We got high, I flew down to the knob just for fun. After about 20 minutes though, the wind increased enough that it was work to penetrate, so we all landed. Then it really blew hard. Super glad to have gotten in the air.