Wednesday, March 28, 2018

SKIING 2018

Reflections on my three weeks skiing.

1 avoided the 'F' word.

2 the snow was excellent especially at Alta but Canyons/Park City was good too.

3 avoided catching a cold or the Aussie flu despite 7 flights full of germ laden people. 4 managed to fit into my 'skinny' salopettes [ everything is relative].

5 got upgraded by Alamo again.

6 lost my TSA status for some reason. Makes airport security a REAL pain again.

7 2018 signals the demise of the underwear/bead trees in the ski resorts.

8 expect to see widespread drought conditions in areas around SLC as the snowpack is at 50% or less in many areas and that is where they get their water supply.

9 I was REALLY tired when I got back and slept for 10 hours on the first two nights. Which I thought was strange as I was OK in the mountains at 9,000 ft plus day after day.

Gaye had to fly back to Oz to cope with a family emergency. Poor Dizzy was condemned to cat hell AKA the PAWS animal sanctuary which had one cat and 50+ dogs. He was a miserable cat when I picked him up and he has been welded to my side eversince.


Poor needy little cat.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

GREAT CONDITIONS AT ALTA

2 ft of new snow over the weekend. 7 ft since I got here.



I have stuck to Snowbird Alta and Canyons and had great conditions at all three.





Even better examples of natures Christmas decorations.





The numbers of disabled skiers are amazing.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

LOTS GOING ON SINCE I LAST POSTED

We made it up to Falmouth Harbor and got the hook down in my favorite spot up front and to the East of Falmouth harbor marine where the big boys hang out. We had planned to fill up with water in Jolly harbor but the water was off when we went in. This is not an unusual event.

However Falmouth harbor marina came to our rescue and filled our tanks. It was not without excitement though as the promised dock boy was missing when we got in and we had no hope of going round again as we were up a narrow cul de sac with multi million dollar boats all around. However Gaye was on the bow line which was the critical upwind line and attracted a passerby who took our line and expertly made it fast.

I got a surprising email from Peter Malone who I had known from my aeromodelling and stock car racing days back in Scotland. He was in Antigua and wondered if we could meet up. We duly did and as we wandered around Elizabeth harbor pete conducted a me on a trip down memory lane. Everything from his competition model AKA PETE'S POLE to his first stockie the yellow Sunbeam Rapier No. 121 to his days as rally driver and his interests in full size flying.

I left Gaye and Dizzy in charge and headed for the airport for the long and tiring 3 stage flight to Salt lake City.

Snow had been in short supply Salt Lake City and I nearly decided to go to a resort with good snow but just as I was making the booking a last minute check on the weather showed a major storm system barreling down on SLC. Well it arrived as the same time as the American Airlines flight I was on. after two missed approaches with violent turbulence the captain announced that he was diverting to Boise Idaho, the cabin crew looked glad as the supply of sick bags was running low.



The snow arrived overnight and and conditions for the powder hounds were great even though the viz was poor.


Next day things were clear


Even though it was getting warm enough to melt the snow a little the runs were in excellent conditions.

At the weekend I often ski at Canyons Park city as Alta my favorite resort gets pretty busy



As you can see there was almost no queue at the bottom and the pistes were empty.

I had bought this pesky inner forestay fitting with me and
found an excellent blacksmith at the Wasatch Forge called Matt Danielson who had a go at forging down the diameter of the fitting. He was a little unsure of the suitability of the grade of stainless but as always as good smith does he got it hot and hit it hard. I still have to get the thread cut but it is looking good.


However not all was going to plan on the home front. Gaye had had to return to Oz to help out in a serious family emergency. She organised the Antigua animal rescue to look after Dizzy and found another cruiser to check on Elephants Child.