Liberty is being free from the things we don't like in order to be slaves of the things we do like.--Ernest Benn

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Winds Are Back!

At gusts of 35 knots.

This is the varsity sailing. I was happy to have my seat on the 50-yard line.

I wasn't close enough to get this shot from my vantage point on the beach and breakwater. I was fortunate enough to keep my camera dry while I retrieved my crazed Doberwoman, Ballou.

Ballou goes completely bat-shit-crazy when she sees kite-boarders. Yesterday, she jumped out of my car and instantly became a crazed and alien monster half a kilo down the beach. The boarders, thinking such a beast would be dragging them out of the water and destroying their expensive rigs, started yelling epithets at me as soon as they identified me as the hapless dog owner. However, they were in no danger: Ballou only swims in horizontal water. And it didn't matter what smack they yelled at me cause you can't hear jack in 30+ knots of wind & surf.

I'm just glad the laws didn't show up.

9 comments:

  1. We call that wind "honking". Looks like a potential deathroll. Good stuff. The salt water will be dripping out of their noses for hours. My mom and grandmother always said, "salt water's good for any cut". Maybe a scratch. But a limb hanging by a thread of tendon will not benefit from any amount of the stuff.

    Doc: Where exactly was that pic taken? That is so different looking than from where we sail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just have to ask if the bill on your cap was bent back over your forehead.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Baydog, this is a shot from the RC boat, a mile off Santa Barbara. It's been 'honking' since our last becalmed midweek beer can race and will until midweek this week. Then the vacuum will return.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yipes. I sailed a Lido 14 in Santa Barbara in the early 60's. With wind like that, I'd have been having clam chowder at the Lobster House rather than out sailing on the water. Great shot!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Okay: By the looks of the wine by the glass prices, I'll take 5 glasses of the Stag's Leap Cabernet, and one of everything on the menu!
    Man did you just get me hungry, Doc!

    BTW, in the sixties, did you ever race Int-14's against Stuart Walker?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Baydog, We were hopelessly out classed in even the Southern Cal Int-14's. We did have some good sailors. I remember a Roger Wells (sp) who died of melanoma at a youngish age. Stuart Walker (east coast!) was a god. I bought his books but never read them. They were too deep! I was young then, and all I wanted to do was to sail! Youth is wasted on the young, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice post and photo, Doc. Can you tell help me trace the photo back to the person who took it? I have an academic interest in the death roll, so if I ever use the image, I'd like to be able to cite the source.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beachcomber, your request raises some issues. The most intriguing is this: Does the fact that I don't have an academic interest in death roll free me from all obligations from citing the source of this photo once I publish it? Suppose I know the photographer? IMO, as long as I am not deriving (nor expect to) any income from whatever I publish, I rather think I might not have to disclose it. I could be wrong, but I'm thinking this goes to the concept of "fair use".

    I know I'm not answering your question. Perhaps I'll feel more forthcoming once you can answer mine.

    ReplyDelete