3rd, Day 1

From: Tom von Alten (tva@pobox.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Thu Jul 20 2000 - 21:57:28 PDT


Return-Path: <tva@pobox.com-DeleteThis>
Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis [15.0.168.176]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id VAA24305 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:55:50 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from cosrel2.hp.com (cosrel2.hp.com [15.88.200.10]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id VAA22823 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net (snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net [207.217.120.62]) by cosrel2.hp.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAC8D805 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Thu, 20 Jul 2000 22:55:41 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from newmicronpc (dialup-209.247.139.193.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.247.139.193]) by snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.9.3-EL_1_3/8.9.3) with SMTP id VAA24887 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>; Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:55:39 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by localhost with Microsoft MAPI; Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:57:35 -0700
Message-ID: <01BFF295.82ED4560.tva@pobox.com-DeleteThis>
From: Tom von Alten <tva@pobox.com-DeleteThis>
To: "'wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis'" <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: 3rd, Day 1
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:57:28 -0700
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet E-mail/MAPI - 8.0.0.4211
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Well, I finally got to see what all the yammering was about at
3rd Avenue. Nice spot.

I went to Coyote first, and it was pretty sparse and unhappening,
even though the wind seemed to be blowing well enough. Everybody
seemed to be slogging on big sails, not one of my favorite pastimes.
Even outside? I couldn't see that anyone was outside...

So, I figured it was a good day to find out where 3rd Avenue was.
By the time I found the secret entrance (with kibitzing from the
lone sailor using the old launch; he said "I hear it's 4.7 out
in the channel," and I looked over that big bay that couldn't
get my 5.7 planing and said "uh huh") and checked things out,
it was halfway to 6pm, and a lot of folks were coming in, talking
about "backing off" and such like.

But a few people were heading out, too. I figured I could get
out there on my 5.7, and see how interesting it was, anyway.
What's the worst that could happen?

Well, first tug with the EasyRig snapped my downhaul. "Time to
replace *that* line!" But what better place to do it, and I
happened to have a new spare.

Got out, had a blast, kept thinking about how I have to learn
to jump port, while finding plenty of starboard ramps to keep
me happy. Great channel, especially ebbing off high tide.

Fogline creeping closer, and after 7pm, I didn't want to be last
out and there weren't many of us left. Time to call it a day...
that slog in makes Coyote look easy. Man, that's a long way!
But the wind hung in there for me, I somehow managed to sail all
the way back, even a bit of a plane toward the very end.

Packing it in, I remembered feeling a little fin shimmy while
doing the hula, gave it a little jiggle before loading. Oh
yeah, it's loose... and lookie here, that thing that used
to be a hole is now a slot! The screw was pulled halfway
through the tab, the front end of the tab was nothing but
a memory and one side was cracked through to boot.
It was one jibe away from Davey Jones locker!

Well, like they say -- it's better to be lucky than good.
_____________
Tom von Alten http://pobox.com/~tva
tva@pobox.com-DeleteThis Last update: 15 July
                               "Dang it, missed again"



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 27 2002 - 12:24:29 PDT