April 2007 Trip Review: Monday

Monday, I was the only adventurer left. After I got breakfast and coffee at Agua Java, I took a short walk around the Corpus Seawall. Then I checked out of the Big Blue Best Western and drove to Worldwinds.

The beach wind blew strong, back up in the 20's. Unfortunately, the air was cool and the sky somewhat cloudy. I was back down to a 4.7 on the JP X-cite ride 145.

I took a class with Randy for the first time. The class consisted of half review, half harness, and half fast-tack. The review went great, even if the water was freezing cold. I had tons of material for Randy, little habits and errors in my technique that were correctable. Randy's explanations were very clear.

I still need a lot of practice with the fast tack and harness, but by the end of the class I was planing for the first time. The planing felt like magic. The nose lifted, the gusts blew, and my board moved. Now I just need to clean up my tacks so I don't lose so much ground on windy days.

After the class, I borrowed an old sail batten from Randy so I could hook any HEB bags I found while dumpster diving (see the previous post). The dumpsters smelled quite ripe. Lucky for me, there were only a few HEB bags in either dumpster. I easily hooked them with the batten and inspected their contents through the side of the bags. Pistachio shells. Beer bottles. Slightly used napkins. Well used napkins. No wallets.

Standing in the one spot with reception on Bird Island, I called Jeff. How full, I asked, were the dumpsters when the wallet was trashed? Apparently they were nearly full yesterday. I informed Jeff of the bad news: the dumpsters were now almost empty. He took it well -- his wallet was gone.

I ate some trail mix, a granola bar, and drank some water before starting the long drive back to Austin. I found myself wondering: is the 145 it? Should I buy a board so I can practice on lake Travis? Next time I'm down in Corpus, perhaps I will.