My all time adventure (so far)...... Pier J and beyond....

May 5, 2011

Pier J and beyond....

I hope you had a great Cinco de Mayo, I sure did. The day started by sending my two Wainman kites back to Kite Naked. Chris had asked me to sell them but I couldn't get his price. Ruth had a few of her friends over to celebrate and after a few of her mango margaritas, they were off to Second Street. I spent a little time in the garage repairing my directional foot strap when I felt the wind coming up. I packed up and headed to the beach.

Dr. Al, Harley Mike and I hung out at the camp for a while as the wind started to build. There were a few kiters on the water, including Britney having a great time. It was time to pump.

Mike walked up the beach, I launched at the mid-tower and Al just went out. It took a few tacks but I got to the pier and noticed the LB water taxi backing up. I jibed and was able to make it to the western end of Chaffee Island before I headed for the breakwater. The next tack was to the south end of White Island, where I jibed and went back to the breakwater again.

As I approached the breakwater for the second time I saw Gabor's kite come around Chaffee Island. Actually I was very happy because it's always advisable to have a companion while we were out this far. . . and he has a radio.
Here's a shot of Gabor and his new Sector directional race board. You can see more info about the Sector at http://www.airush.com/2011/products/sector/
Gabor and I "danced" for a while then he signaled towards the Queensway opening. I returned with a nod of my head and we started the adventure.
This is not a very good picture because it was taken after the fact, but you can see that there is a cargo ship right in the middle of this shot. I was trying to keep up with Gabor and there was this huge ship, right in my way! It didn't seem to bother Gabor because he was pulling off some huge ass jumps, getting the crews attention. In the meantime all I wanted to do was get around this behemoth. It took me a few tacks.
Once around the ship, we got to Freeman Island and Gabor signaled again to the breakwater. I nodded in agreement--let's go.
Our next challenge was getting to the windward side of Freeman Island, seen in the picture above. The wind was still pretty strong so not a big deal. We jibed and were on a starboard tack and. . . . . another ship was on the horizon.
OK, by this time you get that the pictures are pretty bad, but it's all I've got to tell this story. Anyway, after Gabor and I started going starboard back towards the breakwater one thing stood in MY way. . . . another huge ship. Gabor was able to crank his directional board, but it took me another tack to get around it. Once we were near the breakwater again he called out that Pier J was within our grasp. Let's go!!
Let's guess the time we were headed towards Pier J---I got on the water at around 3 o'clock, I screwed around for a while and then ran into Gabor. I'm thinking I was out for 45 minutes. Add another 45 minutes to an hour and we have a guess of 5:30 or so, as we headed for Pier J. Maybe not the best time for another "adventure run", but if we really gave sane, rational thought to what we do, we wouldn't be doing it.
This map might give you a better idea of where the weather tower is at the end of Pier J.
I took this shot from the end of Veteran's Pier at about sunset. It looks close here but it was really a challenge to get out there, especially at that time of day.
It was about this time that Gabor tapped his head; it was time to head for home. That got a big sigh of relief from me since I had already fallen a couple of times. My legs were starting to go to jello. I must say down winding back to Belmont was not that easy either. Gabor later told me I was going a little too slow and my board was sinking. Well that explains it. And here I put it off to shear exhaustion and lack of beer.

As Gabor and I hit the shore there was only one other kiter on the water. It was young Darrin who lives over on Bay Shore. Gabor came over and congratulated me for making it to the Pier J tower and said I was only one of four that have gone out there with him. We gave each other a high five and he headed back to Seal. Just then Klaus emerged from the camp and helped me to wrap up my gear. Talk about a sherpa angel when you need it! That was really appreciated since I was so tired. Dan and Kristin arrived on the ramp and the five of us headed home. Another great day in paradise.