Saturday and Sunday at Belmont

I didn't have much hope for wind on Saturday so I did a little work around the house, washed the CR-V and detailed it because I knew that I was going to have three of Ruth's friends in the car and I wanted it to look NICE!!!

So Sunday morning I drove Ruth and her friends to the Long Beach Airport and then returned to work on my Rhino 16. I got the new bladders from North and now I had time to replace one of them. Then Klaus and Juliano came over to keep me company while they were waiting for the wind. At some point they went down to the camp to start rigging. I finished up and joined them.

It was a beautiful day at Belmont. The weather was warm and clear. We had three Police patrolling on their four wheelers, but no lifeguards yet. Hey Klaus, hide the beer.

There were a lot of kiter's that were on the beach and wanted it to blow. Naturally Kyle, Dong Chad were ready. Those that were also ready were Bart, Bobby, Henry, Jorge and Pilar. Also John Rost

(check his site, www.adventureguy.com), Mark and Carole, Al Navas, Dave (the catamaran guy) and Luca. When the wind came up, Klaus and Juliano were the on the water fast. I had some catching up to do.

When Mark and I got on the water we started heading up towards La Palapa. Klaus and Juliano went East. We were mostly just messing around in the surf, going up and down wind. At one point I noticed Mark was really getting out there, so I decided to be his " beach buddy" and join him.

At first we were just tacking back and forth. Then we just progressed further and further out into the bay.

On one of the tacks we went West of the pier and past White Island. The water was super smooth and yet there was quite a bit of wind. Usually there's a wind shadow, but not today. When we transitioned it seemed obvious to go behind the island. I don't remember if there were any signals or not, we just did it. For some unknown reason the water was pretty choppy behind the island, but we got behind it OK.

As we started to down-wind towards the marina entrance I looked over to check on Mark and he was starting to negotiate around 5 or 6 large sail boats that were about to start a race. When the air horn went off I saw the boats take off but I didn't see Mark. I hoped he was OK.

I tried to give the sail boats plenty of room and then I saw Mark a little behind me. He made it and was starting to down-wind also. At one point I was thinking "Wow, no wind shadow" but I was mistaken. When my kite floated down from the sky I didn't realize this was part two of the behind the island adventure. I was able to get my kite up in the air twice but there just wasn't enough wind to get me out of the water. When it went in the water for the third time the fifth line wrapped around the middle of the kite and I knew I was through.

It was about at that time the Lifeguard Rescue boat arrived and asked if I wanted to wrap up the kite and get a ride to the beach. I said "No thanks, I still might get it back in the air." About that time Klaus and Juliano kited over to me to see if they could help. Klaus even dropped himself in front of my kite to free the fifth line. It didn't work.

I don't know how long it took from the time my kite went down to the time I hit the beach, I'm guessing over a half hour of paddling. What was great about the beach landing was Klaus had kited up on the beach and was waiting for me. There was also a Lifeguard in his truck that was checking on me also. Like clockwork the two of them grabbed my kite, pulled it up on the sand and I wrapped up my lines.

The rescue boat and truck departed, but I was really grateful that we have such a great crew here in Long Beach. I also appreciated the fact that Mark walked down to join Klaus and me for the long walk back to camp. Klaus was so happy that once back at camp he wanted to give each of the lifeguards a bottle of his German beer. Then we thought about it and drank them ourselves.

One of the last guys on the water Sunday was Omar on his surfboard. He's getting good! Thanks Bonnie for the great shot.

At the end of the day everyone had a great day. L-R Klaus, Bobby, Mark, Juliano and me.

It was another great adventure at Belmont!!!!

It's now Monday and while I was waiting for the wind to come up today, I decided to ride my bike up to the lifeguard headquarters near Cherry and thank the guards for their service yesterday. When I walked in I was greeted by the guard at the communications desk. I introduced myself and said I just wanted to thank the department as a whole for their services yesterday. I explained that their rescue boat stayed with me for a few minutes and when they left another guard in one of the trucks was waiting at the shore to make sure I would make it in OK.

Then the Captain came out of his office when he heard words of praise. With the two of them there I told them the story of Klaus wanting to give each of the three guards a beer, but I decided to thank them in person instead. They got a chuckle out of that. He said the department is there to help everyone on the beach and that the lifeguards love what they do. I wished them a great day and left.

There was no wind to speak of today......