Hardelot Plage, then Canterbury with no Wind

Saturday 13th Saw the KKF away team decend on Hardelot Plage for Christmas lunch. If you want to understand the story behind that, then go to the Kent Kite Flyers home page. We were booked on an early ferry and got to dover in plenty of time. However our navigation in France let us down, and we came off the wrong motorway junction and ended up heading into Samer. To make matters worse, as we followed the map to get to Hardelot, we carried straight on, instead of going left. Things looked ok, until the narrow lane we were going down petered out into a dirt track. At this point Matt suggested we turn around as we appeared to be heading off to Royston Pavey!

Well we eventually got to Hardelot, and we may have been last to arrive, but I was first to get flying as the dopero took to the sky. It looked promising as there was plenty of lift to get the camera aloft. And after pre-flight checks, we were off and up into the sky. But the wind was only playing with us. Well I managed to keep the kite aloft, then headed up onto the sea wall. I was really hoping to be able to get into the little play area just behind the restaurant. Unfortunately the wind was rapidly disappearing. I stood helpless on the sea wall as the camera dropped too fast for me to reel in without hitting the wall. So with perfect judgement, or was it luck, the camera landed on the sand just in front of the sea wall, and the kite settled onto the sand on the waters edge. Though it did fall backwards so that it got a good salt water washing.

Ahe well, that was it for KAP for the day. The journey back was uneventful, except that this time we missed the exit for the car ferry, and were heading off towards Dunkirk, so missed the ferry by minutes.

So on SUnday we met up again for OSOW in Canterbury. There was even less wind than there had been in France. I managed to get the Dopero aloft, and even put a camera on the line, but we weren't going to get enough lift to do anythin worthwhile. However it was a good opportunity to get the kite dry in glorious sunshine. Oh well. We're off to Alexandra Palace next weekend. Hoping for a little bit more breeze so we can KAP away like contented little bunnies.