A hectic week prefaced the 2012 San Diego NOODS. This was to be the biggest mid-winter Viper regatta to date in the West....16 boats on line. Garett and I had to prepare the Rondar Double Viper rig to take #175 and the K6 down, a much harder task than we had imagined...in more ways than one. Some custom welding, fitting and futzing and we were ready to hit the 500 mile road trip. Normally I'm all about the road trip but this semi-annual sojourn takes us through the length of LA traffic towing a boat, so we always travel that section in the middle of the night around 4 am. Usually a great idea, this time, not so much. 

2:00 am - Garett behind the wheel on a lonely and foggy stretch of highway 101 outside of Lompoc we come upon two people standing beside the road frantically waving some dim flashlights...barely seen through the fog. I urge Garett to slow down, his only reply was "I have a semi bearing down on my a$$." A couple of quick dodges around cars sitting in the road and we're to a stop in front of an semi rig, on it's side straddling the entire road. The rig behind us came to a stop, finally so we jumped out of the car. The accident only happened a couple of minutes before. A mixture of fog, dust, smoke and diesel fuel permeated the air. We asked the flashlight wielders what happened, got a brief story. I asked, "How's the driver?" Their only reply was "Driver?" Garett and I jumped up on the overturned truck, hearing the driver calling out, not fully knowing what to expect. He was fine. So fine in fact that he started handing out his personal stuff....while we're standing on top of a diesel truck that's sitting on top a growing pool of fuel. Lots of things could have gone wrong as was best evidenced by the huge oak tree the cab of the truck missing by a couple of feet. A couple hour delay and we're back on track for LA, albeit way too late to miss traffic. Oh well.

HIGH SIERRA REGATTA – JULY 15-17, 2011

For anyone that has never attended this Fresno Yacht Club event at Huntington Lake, in the Sierra Mountains of Central California, there are many reasons to add it to your “must-do regatta” list. For those of us in Arizona the excuse is very simple – it is a way to get out of the crazy heat. For others there are many more reasons to make the effort to attend.
The lake itself, at an elevation of 7200 feet, is spectacular, being surrounded by the tree covered mountains of the Sierra National Forest. This year it was even more spectacular as there was still snow on some of the surrounding peaks. And as usual the wind gods provided great sailing conditions by turning on great breeze each day prior to the start of racing and then promptly turning it off when we were done. Is there anything better than sailing in great winds (there were plenty of times it was white-capping) on fresh and clear water? The temperature dropped to a very cool 34 degrees the first night and from our cabin sites over-looking the lake it was so calm the following morning that I was convinced the lake had frozen over.