10 miles w/o jibing!

From: Rick Cattell (rcattell@ibm.net-DeleteThis)
Date: Wed Jul 28 1999 - 22:42:39 PDT


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Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 22:42:39 -0700
From: Rick Cattell <rcattell@ibm.net-DeleteThis>
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To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Cc: Claude Waledisch <waledisc@nicolet.com-DeleteThis>, Earl Armas <eaarmas@msg.pacbell.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: 10 miles w/o jibing!
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For those of you curious what happened to the cross-the-bay
trip I sent email about a couple months ago...

I collected a crew from wind_talk and we made several attempts
to windsurf from 3rd Avenue to San Leandro Marina. The first
two times we only made it about 6 miles before the wind
got weaker: we lost our plane, and had to turn back. But
last Sunday three of us (Earl, Claude, and I) made it 10 miles,
planing all the way, within half a mile of the other side
before losing our planing wind. We had to deal with quite
a range of wind conditions: I was on a 7.7 (I'm 200 pounds),
which left me pretty overpowered for the middle part of
the trip. But it was definitely a fun experience.

It's pretty scary in the middle, where we were the most
overpowered. The furthest anchored barge is just about
2 miles from the launch. When you get to 6 miles, it's
a heck of a long swim to the nearest land! And when you get
to the other side, it is disorienting that the center span of
the Bay bridge looks so small and distant. We took waterproof VHF
radios and emergency equipment.

But we didn't slog the last half mile into the marina... we
decided to turn around at that point. I plan to try again
some month when the wind is more consistent. I'm sure glad
I didn't go today... the wind dropped suddenly from 20mph
to 12mph right in the middle of the afternoon!

Some thoughts from our experience:

1. Check the wind on the other side before you leave. I called
the Oakland Airport, maybe some of you know a better way. And
wait for a day that has had consistent winds for a few days.

2. Take a big board and a big sail, you'll need it for part
of the trip and you'll just have to live with being OP'd
for the other part.

3. Go towards the end of a flood tide, the water is flat then.
If the wind dies, at least you'll have the ebb to help later on.

4. Take a VHF and emergency equipment, and don't take anything old,
especially your mast and universal. Do some practice runs to test
and adjust your equipment, and to make sure your sailing team
is matched to sail together.

5. It's really hard to plan this kind of thing for a particular
date in the future, because the wind is rarely right. I think
it's better to be spontaneous with friends who are there when
the wind is just right. But it would be really dumb to do this
alone or unprepared.

6. Others report that Coyote-to-Alameda is even harder: it's
further, and there's a bigger wind shadow on the other side.



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