did a low-voltage disconnect early this morning as a result of my spending most of yesterday on my computer. I found out about it when my 50° F refrigerator alarm sounded at 6:20 am. Since I did not have my van antenna with the windsock to assure that the van was headed into the wind, I drove to Food Lion to recharge and get the LiFeMnPO online again.
- Today I, again, spent most of the day in my van waiting for wind. Since the wind for tomorrow is forecast to be fairly decent (10-15k) from the south, I drove up to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
in Rodanthe for the night. That way I will be headed toward Windmill Point where the wind is best from the south, and already in Rodanthe where the wind is best from the southwest for the soundside if that is what happens. To bed early in preparation for tomorrow's big blow.
Tue 10/2 - Got up at 5:40 this morning to check the wind, for breakfast and to head north to Windmill Point since the wind was mostly south at Jockey's Ridge (3.5 miles north of Windmill Point), expecting to build. I let the wind go to waste most of the day, waiting for a 4pm jump lesson from Dimitri, letting it rain and watching another kiter, probably out on a 12. I got acquainted with newbie, Jim and his wife, Caroline, who practiced with his 10m until his left shin suddenly found the edge of his twin-tip board.
- For my new
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen battery
web page I got all 16 photo explanations written and half of them uploaded to a discrete test page.
- At 4pm I drove up to Jockey's Ridge for the jump lesson with Dimetri. I did some pretty good jumps, but only when he was talking me through. My Instruction Communication Helmet System worked very well. Dimitri liked it so well he borrowed it for the next guy. We were using Dimitri's 12m Epic Screamer, which he designed especially for jumping. I liked the kite and am considering purchasing one when my 3-year old 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 falls apart.
Wed 10/3 - Waiting for the wind that never came, I spent most of the morning in my van, this time at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
getting my property taxes paid and most of the afternoon visiting around with current or aspirational kiteboarders like Fred, Thor and Pete (71.5 years old). Some kiteboarders went out on 17m kites and huge boards, but were mostly unable to stay upwind.
Thu 10/4 - No wind: I spent the first part of the day on financial stuff: researching the delinquent property taxes on the 10 acres of Witmann land for which I am carrying the mortgage, writing appropriate emails and letters and phoning. I got in touch with the purchaser's friend and he assured me they would take care of the taxes. He said they had been in Mexico for special medical treatments.
- Canadian Hole was my location for much of the afternoon. I got the rest of the image descriptions inserted in the new
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen battery
installation photo array I am preparing for my website. Around noon I laid in the sun for 20 minutes then ran along the Pamlico Sound beach for four minutes with an ending pulse of 148.
- The big job I tackled at Canadian Hole was replacing my van's radio antenna which I broke off ten days ago. After twisting, filing, drilling, pounding, more twisting, tapping and screwing I got a replacement in with the help and advice of Chris from Buxton NAPA Auto Marine. When I drilled I evidently removed the signal wire so I do not have radio reception, but do have, most importantly, my radio-antenna windsock giving me the direction of the wind.
- This evening I had a torso workout and shower at the Koru gym and watched yesterday's presidential debate until it quit loading at 23:43 minutes. Night in Avon.
Fri 10/5 - No wind: I spent most of the morning socializing at Ride Hatteras. I took my computer in, but did not get a lot accomplished on it. Around noon I sunned for 20 minutes near the Avon Pier and did a 4:32-minute beach run resulting in a pulse rate of 162. This evening I placed a wire under my van's new antenna mast to hopefully transfer radio signal to the coax, below, and reinstalled the antenna with wool wax (lanolin) which is supposed to protect from rust and corrosion. Reception is better, but still limited.
- I topped off the day with a legs workout at the Koru gym and driving up to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
for the night in case tomorrow's wind ends up being better than the forecast 5-10k from the southwest.
Sat 10/6 - Today started with everyone waiting for wind and ended with about 30 kites in the air within sight of
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
This morning I finished watching Wednesday's presidential debate and did a little more research that I started yesterday on forming an LLC for my Dahlia rental property. Also I phoned Yepiz at Amica Insurance to check on my umbrella coverage for giving occasional non-commercial kiteboard instruction.
- My
computer
Asus eeePC XP 9" net book computer
has been acting up. The power switch appears to be going out, as the computer does not unsleep, unhybernate or turn on without repeated pressings of the switch - 20or more times. The sound went out yesterday until I rebooted the computer.
- Now for the fun part and an injury: First, for about an hour, I went out to demo a 15m RRD Obsession kite with my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard without footstraps and ended walking back upwind about .1 miles. Then I tried the same kite with a 137 x 140cm 2013 RRD Style, a twintip that runs $1100. I was able to go upwind easily with it. Maybe it was the board or maybe a change in the wind, but it was fun. Then I went out with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board and had additional fun, staying upwind and working on the jump technique I learned from Dimitri on Tuesday.
- The second session of about 1 1/3 hours was on the same board (my Lite Wave Stealth) and my own 15m Epic Infinity, for comparison. I think I like my kite at least as well as the RRD. I discovered the purpose of three small white buoys in the beginners lagoon when I rode between them. They mark a 20' section of a 14" power pole that Hurricane Irene washed up, just under the surface. I heard something crunch on my fins (no damage), got distracted, did an unintentional kite loop and got dragged on my stomach up the beach for about 15 feet. No injuries - yet. I did not actually see that there was a pole in the water until I went back between the buoys to retrieve my board. I kept from being scratched on the barnacles on the pole by pushing away with my hand, which got got about six small scratches. They bled a little. I rode for about an additional 15 minutes until the the wind started to decrease. Then I came in, wrapped up my things and cleaned my hand really well with soap, water, hydrogen peroxide and put on New Skin. The challenge is going to be to keep contaminates out since some of the cuts are on skin folds.
Sun 10/7 - No wind: warm from mid-morning until we got some north wind and a few sprinkles which brought the temperature down to about 77 degrees. I spent most of the day at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
used the Chums I had in my van to replaced the broken retainer on my super riding sunglasses, did a beach sun (20 min) and run (pulse 154) near the Rodanthe Pier, said, "Hi" to Michael at the pier, doctored my hand, improved my SHOPS web page used Weldwood contact cement to glue my right Yurbud on and to coat my mini mouse's scroll wheel. It needed more grip to avoid accidentally clicking it when scrolling.
- After supper I drove down to Avon for some grocery shopping and for the night in anticipation of ocean riding with northeast winds tomorrow and a relatively flat ocean.
Mon 10/8 - Ocean day from Ramp 34 (north of Avon) to Ramp 38 (south of Avon) then back on the water again with Gene and two others heading from there on down to the Buxton Motels on the NE wind. I got out opposite Canadian Hole, about 1.6 miles further, as the wind was decreasing. Due to the decreased wind, only one of the others made it as far as the Motels. Between Canadian Hole and the motels it is not an easy walk to Highway 12. My downwinders took 1:20 for the 4.0 miles, riding 10.4 miles in the process. I was on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board with my old threadbare 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4. I was able to get out past the breaking surf after only a few tries and actually rode in the surf a little.
- Toward evening I resecured the tail rotor power plug on my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
's
main circuit board. I checked it out at Koru along with an arms workout. The heli flew properly without spinning around uncontrollably. Just to not crash it again.
- Spent the night in Avon due to tomorrow's forecast north wind
Tue 10/9 - Practiced the jump techniques I learned last Tuesday from Dimitri on the same board (my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip) and the same size kite (my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4). I worked on the jumps for about a half hour wearing my black hat, since there was a photographer on the beach, and then switched to my helmet for a 5.6-mile downwinder around Avon on Pamlico Sound to Kite Point down south. I worked on more jumps and carves until I got a little tired. Then rode mostly conservatively until Kite Point. I got a ride back with a cool group, including Carol who did the same downwinder, only a little later than me.
- I was surprised when Charles, from WSB Radio in Atlanta, GA returned my phone call regarding Clark Howard's schedule and calling in to his national talk show.
- This evening I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
and did a brief torso workout at Koru. Drove 56 miles all the way up to the Kitty Hawk Walmart in anticipation of north wind tomorrow morning. I am now cozily sleeping under my thrift-store comforter at night.
This year it survived the Philippines, Kansas, Maui, OBX but not today.
Thu 10/11 - Had a good 4-mile downwinder in a turbulent Atlantic from Mile Post 4 near the Black Pelican Restaurant this morning with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board in spite of the fact that my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 was destroyed in the process. I am surprised that the three-year-old kite lasted this long - just this year: a month in the Philippines, two days in Kansas, two weeks in Maui and a month in OBX. A front line disconnected when a pulley broke and the kite went down right in front of a head-high breaking wave. I like to think that the broken pulley was the cause of the crash instead of thinking that lack of kiter technique caused the crash and the pulley broke after, but who knows? By the time I swam to shore all the kite's canopy panels were blown except the two small triangular panels at the wingtips. Two Kill Devil Hills lifeguards, Brandy and Billy were very helpful and took me and my stuff upwind toward my van on their quads. Their help was not required, but much appreciated.
- Back at my van, I bugged a gentleman about smoking a cigarette with my usual, Those things will kill ya, ya know. and a laugh. He said he had been trying to quit. I ended up, with his permission, destroying six of his cigarettes for which I paid him $10.00 and his pledge to make the remaining five last as long as the eleven would have. Sometimes people just need a little encouragement.
- Sometimes you do good things and good things come your way. Doing good: 1) On my beach walk back to my van I stopped and visited with Ken, Beth and their little girl who were building a gigantic sand structure. Of course I had to talk about kiteboarding and mentioned my website 2) I paid the guy $10 for his cigarettes 3) I spent an awfully long time at the Dare County Older Adult Center in Kill Devil Hills locating names, addresses etc and mailing the Town Manager a thank you note for the helpful lifeguards. Good coming: Evidently my bar had fallen out of my harness pack on the beach and Ken found it washed, up with Arizona Lou on it. I found out about it when I was in the Staples parking lot in Nags Head, noticed they had Wi-Fi and and, on a whim, decided to check my email. Ken had sent me an email about his find with his phone number. I had to drive only about eight miles to get my bar, instead of 74 miles that would have been necessary if I had not checked my email until I got back down to Rodanthe.
- Other projects were increasing the tension on the aim of my van's custom LED reading light, installing a new zipper pull on a kite bag with a zip tie and reseting the tail rotor plug with WD-40 on my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
. The latter did no good, as the heli still spins as the tail motor either over or under compensates for torque.
- Finally, after FAXing authorization back home so Maricopa County will mail my general election ballot to me in Avon and after dark I drove down to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
for the night.
Fri 10/12 - Today was sort of a traveling day. Looking at for a replacement for my trashed 12, Armed with my clipboard, I drove to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
Hatteras Island Sail Shop (where I also bought sky hooks for my surf board) and to Real Kiteboarding. I finally decided on the Epic Screamer after a couple phone calls with Dimitri and then drove the 50 miles up to get the kite from Dimitri and spread out my old Cabrinha for a last photo session. Then at supper time I stopped by the Dare County Older Adult Center to stretch my new kite out on the grass and replace the plastic pulleys, which tend to break, with stainless steel glides.
- After dark I headed for Avon where I spent the night in Avon in anticipation of riding the Atlantic ocean tomorrow with a forecast NW wind in the morning.
Sat 10/13 - This morning I got up earlier than ever before on this trip, then in the afternoon probably had my longest local session yet following the first flight of my Epic Screamer. Let's take the events in order:
- I set my alarm for 6:00 to ride on the ocean with young Greg and maybe his pilot friend, Bob before they left the island. I went to the Avon Pier and the wind was good, but Greg decided to ride on the sound from their rental house with a side-off-shore wind. I went on out to the huge beach at Ramp 34 anyway and set up my new Epic Screamer for its first time in the air and to tune it to my RRD bar. In the process of doing a self landing with the kite I realized that I wanted a bar with a single-front-line-flag safety feature, which can save the kite from wave damage and also make self landing easier, especially in tight situations or with people around. I spent about an hour engineering a bar modification that would give that feature, but concluded that the modifications would be major and need to involve a small-diameter bungee-cored line and moving the front-line Y higher to work with my larger kites. I did not want to take my brand new kite on the ocean with the bar's current symmetrical-depower safety system.
- I gave what was left of my old Cabrinha 12 to my friend, Charlie, who does kite repairs and will be able to use parts from it.
- Then down to Frisco Woods Camp Ground for the first riding with my brand new Epic Screamer. I rode 2.2 hours and 22.9 miles practicing jumps and jump jibes with kite loops. The wind was not fantastic, but I was able to stay upwind easily and accomplished a decent jump or two.
- Spent the night in Frisco.
Sun 10/14 - No wind: Spent most of the morning in the Billy Mitchel pilot lounge where I processed a photo of my trashed 12m Cabrinha Switchblade-4 and put it up on this blog and started watching the Vice Presidential debates.
- In the afternoon I drove up to
HISS
Hatteras Island Sail Shop
where Barton let me stretch out an Airush bar to see if it would suit my needs, with its single front-line flagging safety system. Unfortunately the bar's depower system is 5cm too far away, the bar is 4 cm shorter, has no chicken loop indexing detent. I'll have to think about it before spending the bucks for another bar.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe under just my gigantic towel.
Mon 10/15 - All-day, no-wind project: Although it got pretty complicated, I decided to reconfigure the safety system on the expensive RRD kite bar I bought last season, instead of buying the Airush bar and having an extra one cluttering up my van. I had to find and chase parts, cut lines, raise the front-line Y install a new, longer safety line, include a bungee-corred line to prevent depower sag and adjust everything so the bar would fly my kites as before the mod.
- I met Jay & Siri from Alaska and Peter from the mountain country of western North Carolina.
- A tiny temple screw came out of my favorite sunglasses and they came apart. Fortunately it happened in the pocket of my cargo shorts, the screw was made of ferrite, I found it with one of my super magnets and was able to reinstall it.
- Drove down to Avon for the night.
Tue 10/16 - Two sessions today on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board: The first, for about 25 minutes at the first turnout north of Avon, I was overpowered with my new 12m Epic Screamer, did one or two high jumps but should have been on my 8m Best Nemesis. The second, a one hour, 1-mile downwinder from the second to the first turnouts north of Avon, I was underpowered with my 8 and should have had my 12. Did the downwinder with Jeff from Alaska. Meanwhile his wife was taking a lesson up at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
- You can't tell because it looks the same, but I redid my entire website. What a big job. Now when you load a page it picks up the heading and the side, turquoise menu box from two separate files, instead of from a single file. This gives me the option to have pages with both, one,the other or neither. This is in preparation for my Van Auxiliary Power Project array.
- I took a warm shower and had a quick legs workout at Koru and then went to Ride Hatteras in Avon for the night. It was cold - outside air temperature (OAT) got down to 58 degrees under my van floor.
Wed 10/17 - This morning I visited Billy and Jim at the Avon Pier and measured the wind at 7mph G 9.
- I spent most of the afternoon on the beach at Ramp 34, north of Avon. Not enough wind to ride or even to do decent beach jumps, but enough to keep my 15m Epic Infinity up, do a lot of heal drags and experiment with, evaluate and practice with the new safety system I engineered for my RRD bar. It worked perfectly, even from directly overhead, and made self-landing a breeze. Also there, Jay give Siri some time under the kite. She said, as a result, she is now a lot more comfortable and less intimidated with the kite. Also I had a visit with Kevin and Ashley who said they would like to put kiteboarding on their bucket list. They will have lots of time to enjoy the sport, as they appear to be in their early 30's.
- I headed up to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
for the night.
Thu 10/18 - Today, line and fid, day started out with light rain. On the Internet I found an excellent video of splicing half-inch hollow braided line using a coat hanger fid and adapted the technique to putting an eye on the ends of my 7/64" lines. It took three hours to accomplish the first eye, which involved getting a small wire from old Dennis up at the Liberty auto shop, trips to Real Kiteboarding for more of the spectra line, laying out my lines to make sure I got the new lines the correct length (which I didn't) and hanging out there on a picnic table on their back porch making the eyes.
- This evening I drove 34 miles down to the Avon Food Lion for seven grocery items and back up to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
for the night.
Fri 10/19 - Working on kite bar/lines again with no wind today. My shaver lasted 19 days and I recharged it. On the same picnic bench on the back porch at Real Watersports I sewed the four line eyes so they would not loosen under slack. Carol of Best Kites gave me a ride in her Smart car - small, cute and impressive. Toward the evening I spent over an hour at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
lawn installing my new safety and tension lines and adjusting the centerlines lengths from the Y to the kite bridle. The adjustment was necessary, as I miscalculated the required length of the safety and tension lines by about 143 mm. It all worked out, though. I spent the night at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
with my weather station up.
Sat 10/20 - I was first and only one out on the water for about 30 minutes this morning from 7:40, after getting up at 6:08 for my morning routine. It helped to have my weather station read-out so I would know what was going on windwise without setting foot out of the van. I was on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard without footstraps with my 15m Epic Renegade Infinity. The wind was only 11 gusting to 17 mph. I blew only one jibe and, at the last, couldn't stay upwind so came in after going 3.29 miles with a mostly west wind.
- I always like to feel special. I felt special when Dimitri let me try a prototype Epic Renegade Infinity V3 kite, which will not be out for another two years or so. It was a nice kite, but I like mine older Infinity just about as well. I couldn't stay upwind with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board so I took out Dimitri's barn-door-of-a-board. Staying upwind was a piece of cake them.
Sun 10/21 - Two downwinders and a short demo today with an upgraded morning forecast. Both downwinders were .7 miles to Kite Point from the first turnout north of Canadian Hole. In both cases I did a self launch after waiding through 10-inch deep soggy seaweed that had washed up on shore.
- The first downwinder, with my 15m Epic Renegade Infinity, was to practice jibes and carves on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard without footstraps. The kite was ok at first, but by the end of my 40-minute, 4.86-mile ride I was way over powered, but not so much that I couldn't land the kite safely. Others couldn't believe that such a little guy as me could handle so much power. Technique and balls! I did set a new personal speed record on the board at 23.8 mph - not intentionally, and not even on smooth water. I came out of a carve going too fast to slow down by edging and reluctant to bring the kite up to neutral position, which would speed me up even more before slowing down. I hung on, bouncing over the waves and almost bouncing off the board. Eventually I did bounce off with a cool splashdown and a new speed record as I let go of the bar to depower the kite, which didn't even get wet. My 12 m kite would have been a better selection, but it was a fun run anyway.
- The second downwinder, with my 12m Epic Screamer, was to practice jumps and jibes on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board. I went 7.27 miles in a little over an hour, including a long drag back to my board which was completely out of sight after I blew a spin and the kite ended up straight downwind on the water and slow to relaunch. Spins? Yup! It takes a lot of gutts for me to try them although the consequences of missing them (for which I have lots of talent) is not that great. After my long drag I was ready to stop the spins until I remembered what I had wanted to tell my newbie friend, Peter after he got his lines tangled. Go out and try it again. I did try a spin again and made it - portside - the only one I made for all my tries.
- The Epic and Best kite companies had lots of kites out at Kite Point to demo, so I took out a 10.5m 2013 Best Kanoona. Although I was not too powered up, it was a very comfortable and smooth kite to fly with really light bar pressure - my first time with a Kahoona.
- Spent the night at Ride Hatteras. Getting colder, with 56° for tonight's forecast low.
Mon 10/22 - No wind: shower and workout at Koru and organized and lined up and scheduled all my annual medical checks for when I return home: things like annual physical, dermatologist, allergist, optometrist, cardiologist and urologist.
- I started tracking the weather forecasts for SPI. The highs this week are typically expected to be in the upper 80's and the lows in the middle to upper 70's, which sounds pretty good considering tonight's forecast of a low of 53° here, and, by Monday a high of 58° and a low of 51°.
- Spent the night in Frisco.
Tue 10/23 - With a with an overnight low of 57° inside my van, I keept warm this morning by dressing under my comfortor and using my JetBoil to heat water up to my sipping temperature of 132°.
- HORRAY FOR ME! After months of work and organizing, I finally got my
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen battery
Van Auxilliary Power Project installation photos up onto this website.
Click for project information on the Technology web page; go directly to the photo array (small-screen version).
- I washed my van and watched the presidential debate, until I could no longer stand their pandering to the middle class, arguing and personal attacks. Spent the night at Ride Hatteras, Avon, NC
Wed 10/24 - Today was mostly Wittmann property day, checking on taxes on which the purchaser is 6.5 months deliquent, writing and printing out letters, making phone calls etc.
- This morning I attempted to sign up for Ikitesurf, but that was impossible due to their buggy online signup system. Around noon I visited the folks on the Avon Pier, laid in the sun for 20 minutes and did a 4:20 minute beach run that resulted in a pulse rate of 160, and, toward evening, repolished my headlights. I had polished them before I washed the van but that was just lost time, as the touchloess carwash with freesh-water undercarriage rinse clouds them up.
Thu 10/25 - Today I
emailed Christa about taking Clark Howard and crew out for breakfast in Atlanta, GA
sent three letters, one certified, to the purchasers of my 10 Wittmann acres
sent an email regarding the releasing of my Dahlia rental house
downloaded a bunch of podcasts
realized that i can not fix my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
,
as I have already used both gyroscopic circuit boards
at the old Hatteras lighthouse site, sunned for 20 minutes and did a beach run, resulting in a pulse of 151
installed the foot straps on my surf board
siphoned half a pint of water out of the bottom of my refrigerator (all from condensation)
talked to various people about
possible flooding as a result of the upcoming high winds, of a cold front front and the passage of Hurricane Sandy to the east
possible inability to get off the island due to possible flooding and tide conditions
The highest places to park my van in Frisco, Buxton, Avon, Salve, Waves and Rodanthe to avoid possible flooding
the possible shutting down of the ferries to the south
drove up to
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
in Rodanthe for the night
Fri 10/26 - I spent the night at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
so I could use their bathroom early in the morning to cut my hairs and give myself a haircut. I had everything laid out on the tile floor like my hair clippers, shaver, little broom and dustpan, the clipper guards and hand mirror. Then their electrical outlet did not work. Plan B: head .7 miles down the road to HISS for the same. Got it all done and left both bathrooms cleaner than I found them. Now I look a little less ragged.
- KITEBOARDING: Because the ocean was a little gnarly due to Hurricane Sandy off the coast, I went conservative on my kite size and put up my 8m Best Nemesis and attempted to go out on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard, for the first time on over a year with footstraps. I actually got up about four times but there was not enough power in the kite to make it over the breaking surf, and it was too late to put up my 12.
- No Internet on my phone all day. I got Access Forbidden when I would try to go online to my website or anywhere else. Spent the night at Ride in Avon.
Sat 10/27 - Things are getting more interesting. They have issued a hurricane watch for this area and most of eastern North Carolina, although Hurricane Sandy is out in the Atlantic 395 miles south of here. I had a thrill being the only person out on the end of the Avon Pier and feeling it shake as the waves crashed against its pylons.
- I was comfy, warm and dry and my 6m Best Nemesis was dry and clean. I took care of all of the above in about an hour with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board and the 6m. The northeast wind was side off-shore and pretty gusty. Mind you, my 6m kite is my smallest one and my high-wind kite. I was fully powered during the nearly 40 mph gusts, did some decent jumps, my highest one I did not land, and came in after about 25 minutes and 3 1/4 miles because the wind seemed to be getting gustier. I was the only one out at that time, although two or three others were out before and after. It was the first time I have ridden with a hurricane offshore (Sandy was 395 miles south, out in the Atlantic).
- Although the wind direction was not good for Frisco, I was originally headed there to see what I could see when I saw four kiters out at Kite Point, so I changed my plan and rode there.
- Spent the night at Ride in Avon with wind, wind, wind and rain, rain, rain. What do you expect with Sandy!, although the rain is little small drops, evidently because the wind breaks them up so much.
Sun 10/28 - Waiting out Sandy today: On the way to Food Lion I saw a guy walking along the highway - not heavy rain or I would have questioned his sanity. I stopped so he could jump in my van and we both went to Food Lion. It turns out it was John, who let me use his compressor to inflate my kite yesterday at Kite Point. Small world, eh? After our shopping I took him to his rental house where I met the four other kiters that I saw at Kite Point with John: Matt, Matt, Jeff and Jamie (collectively I'll call the five The Canadians). They invited me for a hearty breakfast, which was Matt's ham and eggs and John's soup. Under their house and in their front yard and driveway out to the street storm water was about eight inches deep.
- The rest of the day I spent exploring admidts continuous wind-driven rain: There was essentially no beach at the second turnout north of Avon on the soundside due to the high water in the sound. The post office, Atlantic Coast Cafe and Koru gym parking lots and Ride Hatteras front yard were all full of cars although they were all closed. People were parking their cars on high ground, because 2 - 4' of flooding is expected from Pamlico Sound when the wind shifts from easterly to westerly, which will blow all the water mother nature has piled up on the sound's west side back to the east side and over the land. I added a NC DOT link for road closures to the OBX section of my WEATHER website. NC-12 has already been overflowed with water from the ocean surge and they have it closed between Rodanthe and Oregon Inlet. They have also suspended ferry operations, so we are all here on the island together - stranded, if you will.
This evening I resolved my checking account (on the second try, YEA!), caught up on this blog and am spending the night with my van facing north between the Atlantic Coast Cafe and the Avon Pier - high ground so I can get a good night's sleep without worrying about flooding - just the sound of the rain and the shaking of the van in the wind.
Mon 10/29 - I picked my spot and am sort of here to stay for a while - maybe several days. I've got food, water and electricity here in my van. The biggest challenge is going to be keeping warm, as a couple of towels I could use for covers are damp. Thank goodness I have the comforter I bought about a moth ago at the Hot Line Thrift Store in Buxton.
- Pamlico Sound has flooded most of Avon except the high places where everyone has their cars parked, including me, now on a mound west of the Avon Pier. I've got my weather station up and my observations are pretty well what is predicted: mostly 40 mph gusts and a 7:30pm temperature of 55°F. See the bottom of this blog page for some shots I took this afternoon.
Tue 10/30 - The Charlotte Observer came out with this excellent article, today, about the impact of Sandy on the roads, highways, bridges and people of the Outer Banks, including me.
- Up on my mound, my weather station showed a peak gust of 44.5 mph at 5:50 pm yesterday and overnight lows of 50°F outside and inside my van, burr!
This morning, from my lofty perch, I could see the NC-12 water begin to recede, and also see that the ocean had not escaped the containment of sand dunes. A little after 9 I took down my weather station and backed down my mound and took a parking space near Highway 12 where I could monitor the water, the traffic and finish the breakfast I had fixed. The highest water I saw on NC-12 was knee high. A few vehicles came along when the water was about up to the center of pickup's wheels. More vehicles came as the water further receded.
- The Canadians and I (I got stuck in the sand, from road over-wash, at the Buxton Motels on the way) drove down to the washout southwest of Frisco where John let me try out his 10.5m North. It was cool with a huge bar depower range, and light bar pressure, although I was not crazy about the below-bar depower system. One of the Canadians complemented me on my jumps. One jump I saw my shadow get pretty small, so I guess that was a good jump. Later three of us almost did a 4-mile downwinder on the ocean from the museum to the bath house. John and Brendon were first out on the water and, before I got out they came walking back up the beach with their kites in their hands. Their 9m kites were not enough to power them over the waves and the wind was decreasing.
- I spent the evening at the BM Pilot's lounge catching up on Internet stuff and the night in Frisco.
Wed 10/31 = I spent most of the morning at Frisco's Billy Mitchel Air Strip Pilot's Lounge calling the Clark Howard Show about not putting refrigerators and freezers in garages, catching up on the Internet and giving advisories on Unicom to pilots as they approached and departed.
- This afternoon I drove up to Avon, suspended my Koru membership, hung out with the Canadians, planned my island exit strategy and did a load of laundry.
- I spent the night in Avon across the street from the Canadians.
Here comes a big wave at the Avon Pier! Photo by Louis Self
IMPACT! Photo by Louis Self
NC-12 & Sound are one and the same: Photo: Louis Self
