Monday Dawn Patrol - Use a Sail, Go to Prison

From: Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis
Date: Tue Nov 24 1998 - 09:15:32 PST

Next message: Ed Scott: "Oyster Point/Flying Tigers Threatened"
Previous message: Alain Dumesny: "Re: List"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Mail actions: [ respond to this message ] [ mail a new topic ]

From: Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis
Message-Id: <e756e3f7.365ae9b4@aol.com-DeleteThis>
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 12:15:32 EST
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Monday Dawn Patrol - Use a Sail, Go to Prison
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I set my alarm for 6:15 on Monday and was pleased to roll out of bed and find
Larkspur paging in the mid 20s. The numbers showed that Larkspur had been
pumping for at least a few hours. I raced over to Point San Quentin and had a
4.0 rigged just as the light was coming up. I threw the VHF radio and a flare
in my pouch and figured I'd sail up by the prison so I'd at least have an
unofficial spotter up in the guard tower... not that they should naturally
care to keep an eye on me, but they must be bored out of their minds up there
watching nothing happening in a rain soaked exercise yard. I sailed my 270
Saxo which was big at times but I probably would not have sailed a smaller
board even if I had it as it is easy to get sucked under the Richmond Bridge
if you loose your planing power while well away from the beach. I had a hell
of a time getting in the straps outbound because the swells were shoulder high
and stacked up one on the other. The rides back were pure planing with good
jumps. I sailed about an hour until I started falling off a plane repeatedly
in the lulls. I then sailed back in and rigged a 5.2. I usually skip a sail
size re-rigging up at PSQ because the wind usually falls off fast once it
starts to go. Obviously I hadn't checked my sat maps to see that there was
lots more storm activity lined up. I had about 40 minutes of good powered but
gusty sailing on the 5.2 before the wind came back with a vengence. I was
about 1/2 mile out when I got hit with gusts that were so strong I could not
fly the sail from waterstart position. I had to wait it out for a few minutes
before finding a lull to sneak back in on. By the time I was loading my car, I
could barely hold my board against the wind just to place it on my rack. It
more to do with the insane wind speed then it had to do with the fact that my
arms had been stretched and torqued in unimaginable ways as I sailed in. At
that point the pager was up around 30 average and I think it must have been
3.0 on the water because it was a hell of a lot more than it was blowing when
I launched on the 4.0. The top number reported for the day at Larkspur was 40
mph which must translate to riding a 2.0 and riding a moderately sized ironing
board.

Peter

Next message: Ed Scott: "Oyster Point/Flying Tigers Threatened"
Previous message: Alain Dumesny: "Re: List"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Mail actions: [ respond to this message ] [ mail a new topic ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 05 2013 - 02:03:11 PST