lucky to be alive today

From: Robert Novak (robertn@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Thu Jun 16 1994 - 09:27:11 PDT


Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA15501; Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:32:11 -0700
Return-Path: <robertn@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis>
Received: from sgigate.SGI.COM by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.36.108.4/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA28418; Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:34:09 -0700
Received: from relay.sgi.com (relay.sgi.com [192.26.51.36]) by sgigate.sgi.com (8.6.4/8.6.4) with SMTP id JAA20325; Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:27:30 -0700
Received: from corsair.esd.sgi.com by relay.sgi.com via SMTP (920330.SGI/920502.SGI) for @sgigate.sgi.com:wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis id AA10521; Thu, 16 Jun 94 09:27:24 -0700
Received: by corsair.esd.sgi.com (931110.SGI/930416.SGI.AUTO.esd) for @relay.sgi.com:Dave_Wilhoit@siltronic.com-DeleteThis id AA06984; Thu, 16 Jun 94 09:27:12 -0700
From: "Robert Novak" <robertn@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis>
Message-Id: <9406160927.ZM6982@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:27:11 -0700
X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.1.0 22feb94 MediaMail)
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: lucky to be alive today
Cc: peterb@esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis, molson@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis, prevett@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis, tim@detente.com-DeleteThis, robertn@esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis, dsweet@gupta.com-DeleteThis, BERTNOVAK@aol.com-DeleteThis, scott@auravision.com-DeleteThis, Dave_Wilhoit@siltronic.com-DeleteThis, hung@esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I should have been taking all the safety talk of late more seriously.

Yesterday I was sailing at 3rd. I got on the water about 5:00 with my 8'8"
haut with a 3.9. It was really wild on the inside and even crazier in the
channel.

I was out for about 15 minutes looking for JR to buddy up with when my life got
immensely complicated.

My board separated from my rig in the middle of the channel.

It became very clear that the board was moving quickly down wind and I ditched
my rig and started to swim like hell.

I was gaining on it for about 3 minutes when it caught a wave and surfed
another 25 feet ahead. I pulled off my booties for a better kick and stuffed
them in my wetsuit. I swam as hard as I could for 30 minutes but the board
kept surfing out of sight. I gave up on getting the board when my legs started
to cramp up.

At this point I knew I was totaly fucked.

I put on my booties and spent a couple of minutes working out the cramps. I'm
glad I kept the booties. I almost ditched them in a panic to swim for the
board.

My legs felt a lot better and started a survival swim for the San Mateo bridge.
 I was hoping to god that I could make it before the tide started to ebb.

I swam on my back for 2 hours.

When I got to the bridge I was able to climb some bolts on a maint. tower.
 This tower had a boat suspended from the bridge on the east side of the main
span.

Once on the platform I realized how boarderline hypothermic I was.

I couldn't get to road level because all gates were chained shut.

I noticed that the maint. boat that was hanging under the bridge had a VHF
radio in it. I was able to break in and trace the power to a main switch in
the engine compartment. I called the Coast Guard and asked them to call
CalTrans the get me out.

About 45 minutes later CalTrans and the fire department got me and checked me
out.

I learned a lot of lessons yesterday.

1. always wear you thick suit. (I had a 2mm short sleave on)
2. buddy up before getting on the water.
3. carry a strobe,flares, powerbars
4. tether the mast to the board.

I'm so lucky that I was able to get to the bridge before the tide changed.

see ya

rob

p.s. anybody know how I might recover my board? I should be on the beach in
Fremont.

I wonder is it is worth trying. I had to have pinballed though the pilings and
gotten trashed.

-- 
-- robert novak 415-390-2603          
-- robertn@corsair.esd.sgi.com-DeleteThis                  
-- 
-- "It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milkbone underwear"
--                               - Norm Peterson



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 10 2001 - 02:27:33 PST