Time for Dog Beach and another kite adventure

August 19, 2010

Today started out "All About Dogs." First we went to Petco and purchased a few new clothes for Bebe and Loki. Dan was at work so he didn't mind. After that it was a visit to In and Out for burgers, fries and drinks. We stopped off at Mother's Beach to eat our lunch. Then it was off to Dog Beach to give the dogs a little exercise. Here Ruth tries to get Bebe and Loki's attention.

It's really special that Justin Rudd pushed for this space because it's great to take the dogs here and let them play.

Ready, set go. I'm thinking Ruth was giving the dogs a little obedience check here.

Yes, let's save the clothes. You know how those other dogs can just rip the clothes off your back and Ruth hates to drag out the sewing machine.

Wow, it's a picture like this when you recognize how big Loki is getting. And he's still growing too.

"Say Cheese." What a Kodak moment.

"OK Mom, I think we're ready to go......

...because Daddy says that the wind is up and there are a few kites on the water."

At about 2 o'clock I texted a few of the guys that the wind was up. The first to arrive was Juliano. He just got back from Brazil. I think he said he kited 13 out of 14 day. Boo Hoo. Here Mark is getting some air in his cart tire. I think it worked too.

Klaus and I were rigging when Kyle came off the water. He was a little cold since he wasn't wearing a spring suit, just shorts and a rash guard. I decided to rig warm and wore my long suit.

While we were launching Gary said "Are you guys doing an adventure?" And I said "We never know until we get on the water." Once on the water I think there were 5 of us that headed to the back of the oil platform.

This MapQuest gives you an approximate idea of our first reach. I couldn't believe "Harley Mike" because I believe this was his first time in the open ocean. Juliano does these tacks with no problem.

Next we headed for the back of Chaffee Island. When we jibed we went for the open ocean again by going past the south end of the breakwater wall. Then we headed for the windward side of White Island. As we started approaching it the wind started falling off and we jibed again. It was along this reach that Dan, Jorge and Gary joined us.

These three reaches were fantastic because the wind was really strong and as we came to the breakwater to make our jibe the water was so smooth because of the protection of the wall.

As we were going port, towards Freeman Island it was so awesome because there was this group of us just flying across the water and the kites made this cool vision because we were all going in the same directions and all together. We could feel the wind drop off again and that's when Gabor headed back to Seal and the rest of us tried to get back to Belmont.

Here is how we see Gabor when we kite with him, UP IN THE AIR. I didn't have any shots of him but if I had one of those waterproof cameras I would have taken this shot. Really!!!!

I noticed Gary was on a port reach heading down wind from Chaffee and he had a good head of steam. I changed directions and followed him in. Mike must have pealed off early because as I was swinging my kite trying to get in he was already on the beach. That's when I looked over and noticed that Klaus, Dan and Jorge's kites were in the water. If you double click on the picture you can see Dan doing a great job self rescuing.

Jorge on the other hand took a little longer to get in. He said later that you have to get wet once in a while.

Here was the whole adventure. I'm guessing it took a couple of hours. Maybe a little longer for Jorge and Dan.

Here we are the whole group. From the left Jorge, Gary, Dan, Mark, Darren, Mike, Klaus, Juliano and me. Gabor was back at seal taking a shower and heading home.