From: alain@paris.asd.sgi.com (Alain Dumesny)
Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing
Subject: Life and Death situation - mast broke down at 3rd Ave (Bay Area)
Date: 12 Sep 92 03:31:53 GMT
Reply-To: alain@sgi.com
Distribution: ba
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc.

I was in a life and death situation last monday during the labor day
weekend. You might say that I learned something the hard way, and
hopefully this posting will teach other people from my mistake...I am
amazed to see how many people lost their rigs last weekend.

I went windsurfing to 3rd Ave on monday (after spending a good day at
crissy the day before) and was on the water around 4pm, saling by myself
as usual. I was out in the channel (maybe a mile out) by the bridge (I
start from the tinny beach just south of the regular place) when I decided
to jibe, fell and saw my mast brake in 2 pieces. A pretty small fall
compare to other falls I have made before. Oh shit, I told myself. Then I
looked around for other windsurfer as there are usually other people in
the channel, or boats passing by. nobody was even close to me. I sat on my
board, tried to wave toward other sailors for a while, but to no avail. 
OH SHIT !

That's when I realized I had to rescue myself. Time to ditch the entire
rig, with no second thought about throughing >$500 of equipment. I wanted
to save my ass, not my equipment. At first I tried swimming on top of the
board using my hands as paddle, just like surfers do when they catch a
wave. I also tried slidding down the board and using my legs to swim
toward the beach. I soon realized that the current+wind was pushing me
away from the shore mush faster than I could swim on top of the board. You
drift pretty fast when you are on top of your board and the current with
the waves pushes you away, not mentioning the wind. This is when I
realized I was in deep trouble. The shore was much to far to swim with the
current and wind, yet I could see a bunch of windsurfer sailing close to
shore (I couldn't understand why they were so close to shore, when the wind
was so good in the channel).

So I decided to head up for the bridge. I looked at the pillar underneath
the San Mateo bridge and saw that most of them had ladder attached to
them.  Unfortunatly you couldn't reach any of them from the water (low
tide) and beside they didn't go all the way up to the bridge so you would
get stuck (better than stuck in the water thought). Then I looked at the 2
biggest pillar that are underneath the tallest part of the bridge,
directly above the channel. There I could see a ladder, from the water this
time, going all the up to the top. So I started swimming towards it. This
time I was swimming in the water, pulling the board behind me (just the
board, the rig was long time gone) using the downhall and outhall ropes
that I previously saved (didn't want to throw away those very valuable $2
items ! :-).  I could swim much better in the water, pulling the board
behind me.

I ended up having to swim for about an hour constantly fighting the
current and waves to reach the wanted pillar !! :-(. At one point in time,
I really got scared to be overtaken by the current and pushed past the
bridge and toward the east bay (quite a few miles of swimming there...).
That's in part why I kept the board with me because I wasn't sure I was
gonna make it, in which case I would have needed it for flotation to spend
the night on top of the board until hopefully someone would have found me
the next morning or maybe reach a shore somewhere miles away. I am not
sure I would have made it if I had missed the bridge. At another time, I
was getting tired and wanted to stop at another smaller pillar on the way,
but quickly realized that was a BAD idea because I couldn't reach the
small ladder, and the waves were smashing against the concrete column
which were much too big to have a grip on. I put all the strength I had
(and god knows how much strength one has when it comes to your own life)
and continued swimming towards the bigger pillar, pacing myself so as to
not get exhausted before reaching it. There wasn't any boat around during
that entire time, not until I was safe on the bridge ! AAgggrrr...

Once I reached the pillar, I attached to board to the big wooden pillars
that surrounded the 3 metal pillars that hold the bridge, since I couldn't
take the board with me. The ladder was inside the fence, not on the
outside by the water, so I had to swim underneath and through the fence
to reach the ladder. I then climed up the ladder all the way to the road
on the bride. Beautifull view from there of the bay with the fog coming in
(it was about 6pm), although I would not recommend going through what I
did, even for the view :-)

One the way up the multitude of ladders, I found that most passages on the
ladder had closed fences to prevent people from using the ladder. Right,
just what I needed after what I went through...good thing they were all
broken and twisted, so I could find my way to the top. I eventually was
right underneath the road, under a manhole. I could hear cars zooming by
right above me, and I surely didn't want to stick my head out the hole,
find myself in the middle of the road and get smeared across the pavement 
by a 3 tons truck. Not now ! :-)

So I looked through the holes, making sure no car were actually driving on
top of that manhole, when I lifted it up to get a glance. Couldn't see
anything, so I stuck my head out and noticed that I was right where the
separator gate was, only a few feets from traffic flying 70+ miles an hour
each way. I wonder what people thought when they saw my head sticking out
of the road, in the middle of the bridge. I eventually walked back, until
one of the bridge tow truck gave me a lift back to my car (one driver
mention seeing me on the bridge once he reached the toll booth on the
east side of the bridge).

Next day, I cam back in the morning and got my board back (paid $50 to
some guy who was fishing next to the bride to get my board back, otherwise
I would have needed to wait until tuesday (monday being a holiday) to use
the boat they have at the pay toll (good thing to know, for next time
:-) ). I am just glad I made it alright. I can always buy the equipment
back, not a second life (not that I know of).

The moral of this (pretty long) story is that someone should really think
twice before going "far" into the bay by himself. I wasn't really all that
far, just the channel which is were other sailers usually go (I guess not
this time). You never know when your equipment is gonna fail (my 2 piece
North Wave mast was 3 years old), and you could be in really deep trouble
if nobody is around to help you out. A couple of times I have sailed out
VERY far into the bay from coyote or 3rd Ave by myself. Big mistake. From
now on, I will make sure to always be close enought to other sailers/boats
to prevent this from happening again. At least I wasn't at crissy with a
current pushing me out into the ocean, although there are quite a few
boats passing under the bridge, so maybe I would have been alright there.

I am also thinking about getting those distress "firework" that are so
common on boats (red light you shoot into the sky). You could really use
one of those if your drifting in the bay all night long. 

Do they also make tiny distress radios that emits a signal that can be
used by other boats or the coats guards ? seems like a pretty useful
thing to have too...

Happy windsurfing !

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alain Dumesny	alain@sgi.com	(415)390-5250	    Silicon Graphics Inc.