Not only the rain, but the wind had also been on and off all day long. Hopefully, it would be on when I got to my chosen flying spot, the beach at Lille Danmark (Little Denmark). The branches were swaying and the leaves were rustling while driving to the beach, so this looked promising. But when I jumped out of the car at the parking, it was different. No wind!
I left the kites and the rest of the stuff in the car while walking the few hundred meters to the beach. Was the car park sheltered from the wind? Was there wind out on the beach? I wanted to find out.
I got there and, yes, there was a slight draft coming in from the water. Definitely worth flying. So I walked back to the car again, got my gear and once again walked out on the beach. The first I did was to take the “windicator” out of the bag and drive it into the ground. In such light winds, I like to have a visual indicator of both the wind direction and speed. And the “windicator” gives me exactly that!
Then I opted for the light wind Wind Vale quad kite of mine. I reckoned that would be a good kite given the light wind conditions. I got it assembled, hooked it onto the lines and walked downwind while unwinding the flying lines. When I got to the end of the lines, I could swear that something was wrong. Hmmm… Why was I having the wind on my face? It should have been on my back!
I took a quick look at the “windicator” and, hey, the wind had turned a full 180 degrees and was now coming from the southwest! How did that happen?!
Well, nothing else to do than turning the whole setup 180 degrees accordingly too and get ready for launch. And then it happened again. Once again the wind turned. Not quite a 180 degrees this time, but suddenly it was coming in from the east! Another setup and getting ready to fly … and the wind died down completely! I mean … dead!
Well, it was time for a break so I walked over to this large rock and took five! …or maybe even seven. And suddenly I could feel the wind picking up again. Now from a somewhat more north-easterly direction. I jumped over to the kite and this time I was successful. The wind kind of settled and I was able to fly for 45 minutes or so in reasonably ok conditions. The wind kept on changing directions, but mainly coming from an easterly direction.
And this is what it looked like!
