As I drove down the coast, I could see a nice orange peel texture on the water surface with a slight sprinkling of white caps. The further south I headed, the winds were gradually increasing with the flags at the lighthouse blowing favorably. The white caps were still sprinkled out to sea and appeared manageable.
I arrived around 10:30 AM, earlier than usual, and set-up my bird. There was a distinct wind line that was gradually making its way toward shore, but it was clearly holding back. There'd be some nice cycles, teasers at best, that would blow in, but I waited it out for the real deal.
Around 12:30 I could see the wind line had moved to shore and the velocity more steady, but the damn birds were soaring low...I decided to launch anyway as the wind strength was gradually increasing.
Waddell delivered pretty smooth air on this flight, but there was a clear influence from Waddell Creek canyon as I could feel the warm air mixing with the cool sea breeze. I had to be careful about how far I flew north. At times I thought I could make the jump to the upper bluff, but the birds were soaring only a third the way up..better off staying with the lower bluffs on this flight.
After 27 minutes, it was as if someone pulled the plug on the bath water...down to the beach I went. The winds had switched straight down the ridge and I was not willing to scratch to stay up, so I headed to the beach for a nice slider, broke down my glider, had a beer and called it a day.
As I walked back to my truck, there was a nice breeze blowing out to sea from Waddell Creek canyon, so there was definitely some mixing air on this flight.
27 minutes, 430 feet MSL