The Hiker in Kilt

I had my third sailing lesson on the bay today. This time, there was a drizzle as I woke up. I even got wet, just biking out to the aquatic center. The wind was so low that even sailing downwind was challenging. So, it was a good experience. We sailed a lot on the beat and I got a good feeling for how to do that. Today we were practicing beaching. Guess what, once everyone was out in the cove, we practiced beaching - softly - on the beach half of us stranded on on the first day of our class after which we basically spent all morning there. Hey, this time we managed to launch again without problem. Knowing how to go about helped. But even if I had known that during my first class I doubt that would have been enough. The wind was just too strong that time, it was a lost situation.

We then sailed around the little peninsula that houses the yacht club and beached again on the facing beach. Launched again, sailed across the bay on a beam range, into the cove again and docked the boats. I was successful on my third attempt only. There was no wind in the harbor and on the first try I just lost speed completely, about ten yards from the dock. The second time, somebody barred the way for me and I had to turn, go back and tack yet again.

It was very mellow today. Nobody tipped the boat. In fact, it was sort of relaxing, although sometimes I was not quite sure whether I was actually sailing or just drifting. Sometimes, even with a really tight sail I could feel no real traction, but slowly the boat moved in the right direction.

After class, I had to go to the post office to put a letter in registered mail that they wouldn't take on campus. We had brunch at the Café 976, after which we went to Play it Again Sports, the second hand sports equipment store on Garnet. We wanted to look at rollerblades, I found a nice pair, but they didn't have the right size for me. We ended up buying a boogie board though. In the store we met this guy. He has been walking in the memory of his aunt for two years, to raise money for cancer research, or something.

This was all very vague, when we were talking to him and I didn't understand half of what he said. But what I understood was that he had just arrived in California and was going to continue with his walking. First he walked the Appalachian Trail on the East Coast, now he was going to do the Pacific Crest Trail. He did look like a junkie to me at first, especially as he came across as abnormally excited or aroused. He also has a very stout, muscled body, one that tells you you don't wanta mess with this guy. In any case he told us that he liked to tell everybody what he was doing, to spread the word around, because people would call the cops on him all the time, thinking he was dangerous. "Hah, no kidding!", I thought. He also told us, for some reason, that kids used to pick on him when he was young. He told us he had been in the Special Forces and that he had been a firefighter, and he told us he'd served some time in jail. He told us he was divorced, that he had loved his aunt very much and he told us he was gonna go spear-fishing for white sea bass in the afternoon. He didn't tell us about the woman who sent him cookies on the trail, though. But, all this in only five minutes. Americans are very open people ...

Just as we got one block away from the store, after buying our bodyboard, we came across Carlos again. Two policeman in a police car had stopped him at an intersection!

We found out there's a running store in PB, called "Movin' Shoes" and we quickly drove out there to get me a sports top, for once I finally start running again ...