Blog Archive 2013 Jun
Sat 6/1 = This morning I went to Koru for the steam room and a hot shower with pulsing for my middle right back, then iced it.
- Around noon I arrived at Canadian Hole with a
- SUP
- Stand-Up Paddeleboard
from Charlie's Ride Hatteras and went out about .2 miles on the sound for about a half hour with a top speed of 5.4 mph, falling in once. Then a breeze started to pick up.
- Driving up north, about 7:20pm I put in with a group at Planet of the Apes with my 15.7m Epic Renegade Infinity
KITE and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board for a downwinder to
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
Fortunately everything went well, considering I would be arriving after sunset, including the dogleg canal. About half way through the Cross Canal the wind became pretty dead, so I reversed and, for the
FIRST TIME tacked out the same place I went in, including the somewhat challenging lip at the entry point.
- Spent the night parked by the
- Cormier
- Excellent Quebec family I hook up with almost every year
's
Sun 6/2 = Good kiting day. Mathieu and I did the Planet run after we dropped off his car up north at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
We had a good run of two hours, each of us on our 12m kites and twin-tip boards. We spent about 20 minutes in the No Ache Island Slick and rode lots of inlets; I crashed my kite three times, mostly attempting kite-loop maneuvers; I did not take the Dogleg Canal because tracking directly downwind was a little iffy; I
did take the Cross Canal. Mathieu surely does good jumps! This is the
FIRST TIME I kited OBX in just my Speedos, having left my kiteboarding shorts hanging on a line under the Cormier's house to dry.
- At KHK I had a nice visit with John Harris, the owner. Just before sundown I did a short 20 minute session from KHK with my 8m Best Nemesis and twin tip board. Since I was sort of tired from the Planet Downwinder I mostly mowed the lawn and did a few puny jumps.
- On the way down to Avon to spend the night parked by the
- Cormier
- Excellent Quebec family I hook up with almost every year
's
I gave Tim, from Texas a ride from KHK down to his little gray station wagon at Planet. Tim recently sold his business, bought an RV and is now enjoying the kiteboarding life.
Mon 6/3 = I could have kited today, but didn't. Here's the deal. Joe and I planned to meet at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
for a mutual photo/video shoot, but the weather did not cooperate with rain and thunder storms. The good guys and gals were doing awesome jumps, transitions and board and hand touches on docks and posts. eventually, before we could go out everyone was getting off the water as the thunder storms approached. I spent the rest of the day flying the
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
on my Phoenix RC simulator, configuring
Model 7
in my DX7S controller to operate the heli in east/beginner mode and driving down to the
- Cormier
- Excellent Quebec family I hook up with almost every year
's
where I spent the the night after a good visit and helicopter talk and simulator flying.
Tue 6/4 =
FIRST ocean downwinder on this trip. It was not quite intended, as there was not much wind in the afternoon when Matthieu and I went to the beach in north Avon. I took three of my kites, harness and pump with the intention of practicing self launches, landings and the safety systems on the huge beach. After I pumped up my 15.7m Epic Renegade Infinity
KITE there turned out to be enough wind to try a 3.51-mile ocean run down to Ramp 38. I went back to the van, donned my triathlon wet suit, helmet and
- Foretrex 201
- wrist-mounted GPS receiver
and went back to the beach with my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps. Matthieu, with his 12m and me with my 15.7m had a good run. My kite never touched the water and I made all but one of my jibes! The run took one hour and I covered 6.32 miles with a top speed of 17.4 mph. Claude provided the transportation for Matthieu and me. Thank you, Claude!
- There at the north Avon road we had a nice visit with Roger and his son, Ryan, at the
Pulley House.
- Before the kite excursion I joined Claude and Matthiew in their hot tub. Little 6-year-old Victoria has become my friend. Today she came down to sit with me in my van for some breakfast, lay in the sun with me on the top deck, lined her flipflops up with mine, sat with me at the kitchen counter while I worked on my website, ran up and down the stairs with me and helped me keep track of my flipflops. We communicate although she doesn't speak English but is eager to learn.
- This evening I spent 51:24 minutes on the phone with Cox Cable to put my Internet on hold for seasonal, retroactive to April 14th when I originally phoned, before leaving home. Thank you, Justin!
Wed 6/5 = No Kiting wind today. I drove down to Buxton NAPA and borrowed Chris's soldering gun kit and fixed a bad wire on my computer power supply. I had been using a spare universal wall wart I brought with me. Thanks, Chris!
- For the
FIRST TIME, ever, I dropped one of my computers. It the eeePc XP 900 I have take on my trips, on the concrete driveway, at about a 75 degree angle on its edge. Fortunately it was not running, but asleep and everything is still OK!
- They all
pounced
on me! You see, the Cormier's know I am kind of a eating-healthy nut and after supper I was just taking inventory of the ice cream situation as I opened the freezer drawer. Just to be sociable and to help them with their potential oversupply of the confection, I had a some on an apple Danish. Earlier, Matthieu and I flew the
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
on my my
Phoenix RC simulator. Matthieu's six-year-old daughter, Victoria, also flew it on my easy setting and did better than me.
- Spent the night in my van as always - parked by the Cormier's house: nice and dark and quiet.
Thu 6/6 = Mathieu and I went Ramp 38 south of Avon. There was not enough wind to ride, but I gathered a group of about 6 people who were interested in kiteboarding. They took pictures and videoed the equipment and some beach jumps.
- This evening Matthieu helped me with the microsurgery of replacing the swash plate on my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
.
Fri 6/7 = With Matthieu's assistance, I tried the ocean at Ramp 38. It was the waves that got me, unable to get out past the breakers. We measured the southeast wind on the beach at 35mph gusting 40 with some waves double head-high. A couple guys were out there with their kites and their surfboards - strapless!
- When I get more space to fly my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
,
as in the Koru yoga room, I tend to become more bold - maybe too bold. For instance, today I crashed into a wall and the body-end of the tail boom fragmented. A little super glue and squeezing the fibers together with a piece of polyethylene bread wrapper fixed it - mostly. The tail boom now sort of has Peyronie's disease. About half the time when I crash or do a hard landing now the tail boom comes out again. I just stick it back in the frame socket and go. I'll keep doing that until the motor wires break, then install a new spare tail assembly I have on hand.
- The Cormier's will be leaving early tomorrow morning and I enjoyed my last evening with them.
Sat 6/8 = After delivering some of the
- Cormier
- Excellent Quebec family I hook up with almost every year
's
leftovers
to Ride Hatteras and returning their house keys I headed north to Rodanthe and
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
Although the wind was forecast to be 15 to 10 from the south, it was southwest (the best
- OBX
- Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina
wind direction) in the upper 20's with gusts over 30.
Two sessions today: The first one was local here at KHK with my 8m Best Nemesis
KITE and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board practicing jumps and jump jibes. I was out an hour.
- The second session, with the same equipment, was a 2:40 Planet run with Kevin from Kentucky. The time included riding for about a half hour while he straightened out his lines after doing a high powered crash when he was attempting to jump a grass tip of No Ache Island and about ten minutes holding his kite while he squared away his lines. His crash was evidently pretty spectacular - and, hopefully, captured on his helmet-mounted Go Pro camera.
- This evening, during a late supper, I made the mistake of charging my four heli batteries to fly inside KHK. There was only time to fly three batteries before their 9:00pm closing time. I walked behind the heli as I flew it from one store section to another through adjoining openings. I flew the fourth battery down to storage voltage in the restroom (too small) and outside on the deck (pretty gusty). I didn't crash it too many times, but the crashes were enough to knock the tail boom loose several times.
- Replenished my drinking water supply and spent the night in Rodanthe.
Sun 6/9 = No kiting today except for a few die hards who went out toward evening with big kites. Today I had three
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions: one at the
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
front grassy area and two others sandwiched between showers at Koru, finishing up the last session in the grass field north of Hatteras Realty in Avon. The tail boom was getting worse with a break about 20 mm from the motor and I was not sure the boom was going to hold together. It did, so this evening I straightened the boom and applied more superglue. Hope the fix lasts. It would help if I would not crash the heli so much.
- Around 1pm I sunned20minutes on a Waves Beach.
- At Canadian Hole this evening I reattached one of the handle screws on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board, tightened all the screws on both of my boards as necessary and did my blog's monthly rollover in 16 minutes - maybe a record! I spent the night in Avon to rise early to be ready for an 8:00 am oil change w Glenn at Autobanks.
6/10 = Got the oil change completed about 9:00, drove down and checked the wind on the beach at the museum opposite the ferry docks (my
waypoint HAOMUS
) - my farthest OBX south so far this trip and paid my two some credit card bills online at the Billy Mitchel Air Strip Pilot's Lounge.
-
KITEBOARDING was pretty good this afternoon with a 6-mile 2-hour Planet of the Apes run to
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
with my 8m Best Nemesis and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board (a good call) in southwest winds averaging 19 and gusting to 27 when I started out. I mostly worked on jumps and jump jibes, doing some of my best jumps yet with the 8. The jump jibes were not very high. I took most of the inlets and the dogleg canal and traveled 21.8 miles with a top speed on portside of 29.9 mph. I did not have the guts to do any spins or kite-loop jump jibes.
- I spent the night in Avon.
Tue 6/11 = The first
KITEBOARDING try was a semi-disaster attempting a 3.6-mile ocean downwinder from Hatteras Village at the museum (my GPS
waypoint HAOMUS) to to the Bath House (my GPS
waypoint haoBath House) with my 8m Best Nemesis
and Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps. I was creamed by a big waves (shoulder high) - twice. The first time I got the kite relaunched and got going again, sort of. The second time the kite got down in the surf and I activated the single-front-line-flag safety system I engineered (to protect the kite in breaking waves) and swam to shore. While on the beach the leading edge deflated when one of the strut fill-tubes came off. I walked about .2 miles back to where I started.
- The second try, with the same equipment, was with Tim from Texas who drove about 30 miles down from Waves to do an ocean downwinder with me from the museum the Bath House. We were out about 1:15 hours and both did pretty well considering the wind was falling. I did much better than last time, using the chicken jibe when a big wave would come along. Tim got his kite down in the water and it inverted. With the resultant crossed lines, he decided to walk the last .3 miles, so I kited all the way to the Bath House, having to let the kite take me to shore to wait for my board once and was never tumbled by big waves. However, the kite did get down in the ocean twice when I was off my board and a big breaking wave pushed me toward the kite, slackening the lines. I was able to relaunch the kite both times. The session was pretty satisfying since I survived, did much better working the kite in poor wind situations.
- Tim had a delicious iced watermelon that he split as our reward for a good run. The expedition started this morning when I decided I needed to take a rest from jumps and should try the ocean - ideal from the southwest end of Hatteras Island when the wind is from the southwest.
Spent the night in Hatteras Village.
Wed 6/12 = Around 6pm Tim and I
KITEBOARDEDc the 1-mile downwinder on the sound from the first (my GPS
waypoint HANOR1) to second (my GPS
waypoint HANOR2) turnouts north of Avon. We both went on 12m kites and our surfboards to practice on our ocean skills without having to worry about getting clobbered by waves. Tim used no footstraps and I seldom used he rear foot strap. I traveled 5.56 miles and had a top speed of 22.9mph, starboard, using only the front footstrap.
- My breakfast this morning was completely different. I had my first
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal. I actually did not eat one of the crackers and saved peanut butter for later.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1150 calories with a total of 1350mg sodium and 40g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 160 | Pasta with Garden Vegetables in Tomato Sauce |
| 5 | Raspberry flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 210 | Sortbread cookie |
| 210 | Fig bars (2) |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Peanut Butter (42.5g (5.5oz)) |
| | Pepper (2 pouches) |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack. |
The heating pack was very effective, creating some steam in the process. You put the 40ml of clear salt water in a pouch with the pasta and and the heater, which contains powdered iron in four non-woven fabric chambers. The iron oxidizes (rusts) very rapidly vaporizing much of the water into steam in an exothermic reaction.
- Around noon I sunned 20 minutes on the Bath House beach and flew my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at a Hatteras Village grass field. The tail-boom-frame socket split. I tried to superglue it back together. We'll see if the boom still fits into the socket and if the fix holds.
- I spent a couple hours or so at the Hatteras library updating this website and taking care of some financial stuff related to my Dahlia Rental and ten acres I sold and am carrying the note.
- Later this evening I gave the folks at Ride Hatteras a dozen
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meals, removed the rear footstrap from my surf board and spent the night in Avon.
Randal, I left my wetsuit (farmer john style) in the back of your pickup after our ocean downwinder to Robin Lane (blush) on Thursday 6/13. If you find the wetsuit, please leave it for me at the Kitty Hawk Kite Center in Rodanthe the next time you are out this way. Also give me a pone call. AWESOME DOWNWINDER!
Thu 6/13 - Awesome 4.7-mile
KITEBOARD downwinder (1.1 miles farther than to the Bath House (my GPS
waypoint haoBath House)last time) on the Atlantic from the Museum (my GPS
waypoint HAOMUS)to Robin Lane (my GPS
waypoint haoRobin Ln) with Randal, one of my kiteboarding buddies from previous years. He used his 9m kite and I used my 8m kite. He went strapless on a longer board and I had only the front footstrap on my surfboard. When I was beginning to feel like the master of the surf a challenging wave would come along and put me in my place. I
did make a top speed of 19.2mph on a wave I accidentally caught and also rode along in the shallows near shore at one point, mainly because of the breaking waves farther out. The chicken technique seemed to pay off as I was approaching what was left of the Frisco Pier, having difficulty getting out past it to my satisfaction. I came into the beach, did a self landing, rolled up my lines, carried the kite, lines and board under the pear, set it up, did a self launch and continued on to Robin Lane. Thanks for a good run, Randal! My wetsuit took off to Manteo in the back of Randall's pickup truck where I left it (ugh).
- This morning I spent about an hour at the Hatteras Village Library and researched the Blade MCPX bl RC helicopter, with brushless motors, that my friend Rich Hehmann likes so well.
- Too much wind? This evening I drove north to Salvo Day Use Area where Tim was packing up from a gusty session, then on north to
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
where no one was out, in spite of the wind. Maybe it was because the KHK iKitesurf weather station was showing an average of 43mph winds with gusts to 49. On the sea wall my hand-held showed an average of 33 with a gust of 38. I lazied out and did not go out. Also no one seemed excited about launching me.
- Because two of the leather thongs on my hat broke I replaced all them with boot laces. Spent the night next to Tim's motor home. Thanks, Tim!
Fri 6/14 - Good
KITEBOARD downwinder with Tim this afternoon to Kite Point (my GPS
waypoint HAKITE)
from the first turnout north of Avon (my GPS
waypoint HANOR1)
on a northwest wind. My 12m Epic Screamer and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board were a good call for practicing jumps. One of the older kiters at KP said he was overpowered with his 9m and should have taken out his 7m kite. I guess he likes to do more technical tricks than me. Tim took out his 12m and his strapless surfboard. We did the run in 1:10 hours, I traveled 10.7 miles and had a top speed of 25.4 mph, holding on, not trying to go fast during a gust.
- This morning was my second
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal: Spaghetti with Italian Style Meat Sauce. I did not eat the peanut butter or crackers.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1310 calories with a total of 1260mg sodium and 51g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 240 | Spaghetti with Italian Style Meat Sauce |
| 5 | Raspberry flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 280 | Oatmeal cookie, without raisins |
| 210 | Toaster Pastry, Strawberry |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Peanut Butter (42.5g (5.5oz)) |
| | Pepper pouch |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack. |
This evening I dozed off trying to resolve my checking account and spent the night in Avon where the low was forecast to be 65 and slept under my comforter (a good call) for the first time in about three weeks.
Sat 6/15 = No kiteboarding wind today. Tim is driving up to Virginia Beach to take care of some electronics problems. I am hanging out, mostly at Canadian Hole, doing a beach sun/run, repositioning my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
's
tail rotor so it blows closer to horizontal, attempting to resolve my checking account (second time) flying my PhoenixRC Nano simulator, putting my tail light back together (broken when I backed into Pino's car Sunday evening (his car was not damaged)) and flying my Nano in the Koru aerobics room and in the grass field north of Hatteras Realty.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe.
Sun 6/16 = Good
KITEBOARDING session late morning (after the wind blew all night) that ended poorly with my 8m Best Nemesis and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board from
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
.
I worked on jumps, kite-loop transitions, and kite loop jump jibes. I tried three spins and crashed my kite on the last one which pulled a strut fill tube off so the leading edge lost pressure making the kite unflyable. What a beautiful day for a walk in the sound - .3 miles back to KHK, demonstrating, "You don't want to go out farther than you want to swim in." My afternoon project was straightening out my kite lines (took about two hours) and repairing the 8m kite (took about 20 minutes).
- This evening Tim and I did the Planet of the Apes downwinder. I went all the way through both canals for the first time in about 2 years, had a top speed of 31.7mph, and traveled 16.9 miles mph. - also jumped two little grass islands. Tim said I looked like Dimitri! Thanks, Tim!
- Breakfast this morning was my third
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal. I substituted some tuna, a slice of bread and an apple for the raisins, cookie, cheese spread, raspberry drink and crackers.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1190 calories with a total of 1330mg sodium and 44g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 270 | Southwestern Style Chicken with Black Beans and Rice |
| 5 | Raspberry flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 210 | Shortbread cookie |
| 210 | Fig Bar (2) |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Cheese Spread (1.5oz/42g) |
| | Pepper pouch |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack, which did not work |
| | Salt water to activate the heating pack (1.12 oz) |
- Spent the night in Rodanthe
Mon 6/17 = About four hours of
KITEBOARDING today in two sessions: For the first session, local at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
a little before noon with my 8m Best Nemesis, I spent about an hour practicing jumps & kite loop jump jibes with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board and then about an hour practicing jibes with my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with only the front footstrap. I did stop in at Radical Kiteboarding a new kite school about .2 miles north started by my friend, Ed.
- For the second session, with a little more south in the wind than ideal, we were on the water by 6:00pm for the famous Planet of the Apes run: Tim, who chilled out with his surfboard and 12m; Aaron, new PASA instructor on a twin-tip and 12m kite; and Taylor, taking the PASA certification class this week on his 12m kite and his twin-tip board. It was the first Planet run for latter two and they enjoyed the 1:40 hours thoroughly in spite of only getting a few hours of sleep the night before, driving from Michigan. They didn't do all the fun stuff, so are looking forward to their next Planet run. I had to tack back out of the cross canal and, for the
FIRST TIME, I tried to do a water start with my board against the north (downwind) shore of the canal - success! That surely beat my previous approach of trudging through the mud to the upwind side of the canal to start up.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe.
Tue 6/18 = Only one
KITEBOARDING session today, but it was a good one: Planet downwinder with Kate and Tim. Kate followed me into many of the inlets and had a blast. It was not her first Planet run, but the first one with a guide (me) who showed her all the good stuff. I believe she was on her 9m kite. Tim played around on the sound, still trying to do jumps with his strapless surfboard. He may have been on his 10m kite. I took all the good stuff, including the two canals with my 8m Best Nemesis kite and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board, which was a perfect combination for the conditions. I probably did my highest jump (25-30') yet, although the landing was not great. As we usually do when we have three vehicles, we left one at
- SDA
- Salve Day Use Area
in case someone had a problem and needed to get out at that half-way point, which didn't happen and rarely does.
- Breakfast this morning was my fourth
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal. I substituted a slice of bread and an apple for the raisins, cookie and crackers.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1140 calories with a total of 1330mg sodium and 41g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 220 | Creamy Chicken Tetrazzini |
| 5 | Raspberry flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 210 | Shortbread cookie |
210 | Fig Bar (2) |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Cheese Spread ((tasty 1.5oz/42g) |
| | Pepper pouch |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack, which did not work |
| | Salt water to activate the heating pack (1.12 oz) |
- This morning I drove down to Avon for some grocery shopping. Spent the night in Rodanthe
Wed 6/19 - No kiteboarding today due to poor wind. Hung around
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
most of the day with a little trip to
sun
on a Waves beach and visit with the Ed and his crew at the newly opened Radical Kiteboarding shop.
- This evening I got on Beach 104 FM with Chris (taking the place of Jody). Chris interviewed me, mostly about all the places I have kiteboarded and
- OBX
- Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina
being my favorite place in the world to kiteboard.
- Two four-battery
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
sessions today, both outside with 15mph winds and inside KHK. Needless to say my little heli attracted some attention. I only crashed it twice in the store - slow-speed against walls and not near people. I kept it above their heads. I flew it in their 30-foot high kite area and also from store to store through their connecting doorways.
- This afternoon I charged up my 12v kite pump and reinforced the ports on its vinyl sand case with clear packaging tape.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe.
Thu 6/20 =
KITEBOARDING one Pamlico Sound downwinder and almost an Atlantic Ocean downwinder today. For the Sound I teamed up with Marc Deppe for 2.4 miles from Frisco Wood Campground to the Hurricane Isabelle Washout. He was on a twintip and I was on my 12m Epic Screamer and Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with only the front footstrap. For the one hour and 7.58 miles I did nothing but jibes, including in some large inlet slicks.
- Late in the day Texas Tim and I were going to downwind on the ocean from Avon's north road to Ramp 38. Since it was getting late, we halved the run, making it to the Avon Pier. By the time we got our vehicles delivered and the kites pumped up, the wind was slightly off shore and it was getting late enough that I did not like the safety margin if I ran into trouble. As he headed out for his awesome downwinder I remained on the huge beach and practiced self launches and landings. I need some more practice on the landings.
- I broke my weather station and found out something I was curious about but didn't really want to know. Which would break first: My PVC mast mount or the aluminum mast tube? I found the answer as I was leaving the Frisco Wood Campground launch site, being distracted and needing to pee and taking off with the weather station still up. I drove under a tree and heard the pop. The van's mount broke off. Fortunately the tree branch did not hit the anemometer assembly, so all I'll have to do is to make a new mount.
- Breakfast this morning was my fifth
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal. I substituted a slice of bread and an apple for the raisins, cookie and crackers.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1310 calories with a total of 1330mg sodium and 58g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 240 | Hearty Beef Stew |
| 5 | Lemonade flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 280 | Oatmeal cookie |
210 | Toaster Pastry, Strawberry |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Peanut Butter ((tasty 1.5oz/42g) |
| | Pepper pouch |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack - empty & did not heat |
| | Salt water to activate the heating pack (1.12 oz) |
- Spent the night in Avon
Fri 6/21 = Today was
Fixin' the Things I Broke
day, plus some other things. First the other things: I wrote a Thank You note to Beach Mart, Inc. in Nags head complementing their
Super Wings manager in Avon, syphoned 15 ounces of water (condensate) from the bottom of my refrigerator, hanging out at Canadian Hole most of the afternoon.
- Things I broke: I finally finished piecing together the puzzle of the van's right tail light that I broke when I backed into Pino's car. I originally used the clear packaging tape to temporarily hold the pieces together until the superglue set, but decided to just leave the tape on.
- I superglued my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
's
frazzled tail rotor boom together, crashed the heli more, broke the frame's tail socked so superglued the tail into the frame. The tail motors last a long time so, hopefully, this one will last until I decide to replace the whole heli.
- Most of the day was spent gathering parts for a new weather station mount to match the old one I broke yesterday. I got the parts at Ace Hardware, including a 1/4" steel cable for reinforcement and the epoxy resin at Scott Marine in Buxton.
- Spent the night in Avon.
Sat 6/22 = No kiteboarding today. Breakfast this morning was my sixth
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal. I substituted a slice of bread and an apple for the raisins, cookie and crackers.
The total meal pack weighed about a pound and contained 1180 calories with a total of 1330mg sodium and 45g of fat. The meal included vacuum sealed pouches for:
| | Calories | Ingredient |
| 280 | Creamy Chicken Tetrazzini |
| 5 | Lemonade flavor sugar free drink powder |
| 180 | Crackers (2) |
| 210 | Shortbread cookie |
210 | Fig Bar (2) |
| 140 | Raisins (43g (1.5oz) |
| 250 | Cheese Spread ((tasty 1.5oz/42g) |
| | Pepper pouch |
| | Plastic Spoon |
| | Moist Towelette |
| | TrueTech heating pack, which did not work |
| | Salt water to activate the heating pack (1.12 oz) |
- I bought .85 oz of fast-setting epoxy at Ace Hardware and used it on my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
tail and to top off the van's new weather station mount. The epoxy did not harden properly and mostly caused a mess. I finally got the mount filled, the fourth-inch reinforcement cable ground off (Thanks, Scott of the Buxton Red Drum auto repair) and the top rounded with hot-melt glue to, hopefully, make the whole thing weatherproof. For the heli, I would have preferred the epoxy (which I returned to Ace) but settled for hot-melt glue to reinforce the heli's tail.
- Spent the night in Frisco
Sun 6/23 = No kiting wind this morning so I hung around the Frisco Billy Mitchel Air Strip dividing my attention between airport advisories to incoming pilots, van's weather station mount, checking account, visiting with pilots like George and his copilot, Randy (jet) and Dwight (Cessna 172) and others, and doing this blog.
- I got the weather station installed with a precision vertical mounting stub, hoping that my new mount is not stronger than the anemometer pole. I give up, as my check book is still $117.00 high after printing out three months of statements and going through everything with a fine-tooth comb.
- I fixed supper and ate it while heading north to
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
where Tim and I were the only ones on the water for almost an hour until sunset at 8:21. It was the most mellow session I have Eever had with my 8m Best Nemesis
KITE and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board. I did lots of kite-loop jump jibes, but none very high. Top speed was 15.8 mph, not trying to go fast, and distance traveled was 8.64 miles.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe
Mon 6/24 =
KITEBOARDING today, with my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board stashed at KHK, was a late (7:00) 3.6-mile downwinder from
- SDA
- Salvo Day Use Area
to KHK with my 8m Best Nemesis and Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with only the front footstrap, practicing jibes all the way and making most of them. My GPS showed me out 1:37, traveling 13.2 miles and a maximum speed of 17.9 mph. At KHK I switched to the twintip and did a bunch of kite loop jump jibes - the first time without first doing practice kite-loop jibes!
- This morning I had Creamy Chicken Tetrazzini, my 7th
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal and hung out at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
phoning Horizon Hobby about the damaged
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
main rotor gear and landing skids they sent me. They are sending me out replacements. Thank you, Tracy!
|
My proposal for kiteboarder access to the sound, including soft boat-bottom paint and grip on the under-water boards.
|
|
- I also made a drawing of my proposal for kiteboarder water access with the ramp here at KHK and submitted it to Chris Moore, the operations manager.
- Spent the night in Avon
Tue 6/25 =
KITEBOARDING today was a Planet downwinder with Tim, Braun (blue rash guard) and Eric (gray rash guard), all on our twintip boards. They didn't follow me on
all the fun stuff, but did a lot. There's always more left for their next Planet run. What a crew! I rode in my riding shorts only and was pretty comfortable, temperature-wise. It was
cool.
- At Planet, I saw Ryan who, five years ago, I talked into doing his first, ever, downwinder. What a small world!
- This morning I showered, did a medium-heavy full-body workout and flew my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
at the Koru gym, and analyzed their parking lot wifi reception pattern.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe. The low was forecast to be 76 degrees so, for the first time this trip, I went to bed with nothing on, even my feet. By morning I put a towel over just my feet. Now, I am sure, I have told you more than you wanted to know!
Wed 6/26 = Two
KITEBOARDING sessions today after a slow start due to a miscommunication with Tim. Around noon I kiteboarded about a half hour, locally, at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
expecting to be overpowered and do some awesome jumps with my 12, but the wind decreased. I
did practice jumps and kite loop jump jibes - nothing great.
- Tim and I did an hour's run on the Atlantic Ocean from down by the museum (my GPS
waypoint HAOMUS) to the Bath House (my GPS
waypoint haoBath House). The waves were low (fine with me) and the wind was low so I got by with my 12m Epic Screamer. I survived! Also I may have set a new record of getting the kite down in the ocean and relaunching it five times. I got off my board about three or so additional times.
- In addition to kiteboarding I picked up my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
parts from Ride Hatteras (Thanks!, Amy), chgarged two of my camera batteries, spent some time at the Billy Mitchell Air strip pilot's lounge and spent the night in Avon.
Thu 6/27 = Three
KITEBOARDING downwinders - two in the Atlantic: Around noon Lali and I did the one mile downwinder from the first to second turnouts north of Avon. We took out our surf boards - him practicing jibes and me attempting to use the kite to jump up, land on the board riding away.
- About 3:46 Tim joined us for a 3.6-mile downwinder on the ocean from the museum to the Bath House downwinder, and then Lali and I did the 1.3-mile downwinder from the Washout to the Bath House. Both downwinders I got out without too much trouble and both times I was going to ride in style to shore on a wave at our destination. Both downwinders I was clobbered by a big wave and ended up swimming in. Fortunately ONLY my pride was damaged.
Fri 6/28 = Two
KITEBOARDING sessions today: The first was a
- Planet
- Planet of the Apes, a relatively isolated sound-side location: Highway 12 mile post 46.5; (waypoint "HAPLAN")
run with Goran and his son, Alex, two Swedes for their first downwinders. They had huge fun and probably did more of the fun stuff than anyone I have taken on the run so far. It helped that I pitted father against son to see who would do the most stuff. Dad won by a small margin. Alex was on a 10m kite; Goran and I were on 12m kites and much overpowered at the last. We were all on twin-tip boards.
- After supper and toward sunset I went out for a half hour with my 6m Best Nemesis and was somewhat underpowered.
- Spent the night in Rodanthe which included a thunderstorm with a peak wind gust 49.4 mph at 5:45 am according to my weather van's station.
Sat 6/29 = I never thought I'd feel like sitting on the sidelines instead of
KITEBOARDING when the wind was blowing, but I did today - for only a couple of hours. After a mostly gusty, overpowered, session at
- KHK
- Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
with my 8m Best Nemesis on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board for a half hour and then on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with only the front footstrap for about 15 minutes, not doing real great on either board, I had that feeling. While the feeling lasted and the wind was still blowing I looked for the error in my checkbook, flew my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
around inside the KHK stores and was preparing to fix supper. Then a group said they were doing a downwinder to New Inlet and that I could join them if I liked. The feeling was banished and I scurried around to join them.
- They were almost a mile ahead of me when I got out on the water with my 6m Best Nemesis and 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board. It was catch-up time. I over-sheeted the kite, trucked straight downwind at about 15 mph and eventually even took the lead for a little while. This is probably the most fun I have ever had with my 6m kite and sharing the experience with my friends.
The group included:
- Eric Sharp, the leader
- Hunter Vaitor
- Chris Moore
- Tony Heydenburg
- Angela Millar
- Gordon (from hanging around KHK)
- Me, Arizona Lou
- Meanwhile Tim, Lali and Randal had done the ocean with respective comments: "some awesomely big waves," "nuts, man," and "What's good what's good big wave." They evidentially call that, "FUN."
- Finally I
did eat supper, did some much-needed grocery shopping and got to bed late in Avon.
Sun 6/30 = No kiteboarding today, with heavy rain and thundershowers much of the day.
Breakfast this morning was my tenth
A-Pack Ready Meal self-heating emergency meal, Hearty Beef Stew.
- The most notable thing I did was fly my heli and do a medium-heavy full-body workout at Koru and catch up on listening to podcasts of some of my favorite talk show hosts (see
Smart Stuff. I also bought T3chDad ($2.99) for my
- Nano
- fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
that is a highly recommended smart phone application that keeps track dates and times of flights, battery usage etc.
- Spent the night down south in Frisco.
