TTGBlog

Wow. So fast and so maneuverable.

Here is a link to my first flight : First Flight in Google Earth

Breck and I too the Windhook out onto the Santa Monica Bay to see if we could spot the Altas 5 rocket launch from Vandenberg base. The wind was blowing santa ana style and almost blew us right off the dock and down into the channel. i had to back and fill in the middle of D basin while a beam wind pushed us sideways. Right off the bat I got the feeling my engine and prop were a little bit overpowered by this wind. I put up the working jib in the main channel and we sailed right out of the south entrance. Right when we hit the waves a jar fell and broke down below. I turned us around and attempted to motor back into the marina up wind. The boat wasn’t going. It was wallowing left and right but not making andy good progress. It was blowing 20-25kts. I realized we’d have to sail out and back into the north entrance. On our first approach to the north entrance we came really close to the rocks. I brought down the jib to let the engine have it’s way but that only stopped our forward progress. So back up went the jib and another tack back out into the bay. We did three tacks on the jib alone but once we put up the main to balance us out the last leg was a perfect angle. Strawber and Tacoma were bearing through all of this stress and excitement. By the time we got back to the dock the wind had completely died and the dogs were skating around the docks in the doggy version of kissing the ground at our feet.

We didn’t see the rocket. Well we thought we saw a red glow for a little bit but it was not very rockety.