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-==== Double Surfski to Hales and Eliza ==== 
- 
-**Saturday morning....early\\ 
-Larry Goolsby** \\ 
-04/​23/​05 ​ #209 
- 
-Dear Don, Dean, Mike and whoever else.....First I want to apologize\\ 
-for not being at the 2 PM Saturday paddle. Shaun and I had great\\ 
-intentions on paddling with you guys but we ran out of gas. My day\\ 
-started with a 6:30 AM call from Shaun (bastard needs to stay up\\ 
-later) wanting to know if I was awake yet. I said of course I was\\ 
-because I had to wake up to answer the phone (duh). Anyway, he said\\ 
-the bay was flat as glass and wanted me to grab the double Fenn and\\ 
-meet him at Fairhaven for an early morning paddle. The plan was to\\ 
-go out to Eliza Island, have a cup of coffee, head back to Fairhaven\\ 
-for lunch and then join up with you at 2 PM. Piece-o-cake.\\ 
-Since my wife was out of town (Las Vegas, don't ask me why), it was\\ 
-my job to take the dog for a walk or the dog would take herself for\\ 
-a walk. When I left the house I noticed that the wind was blowing\\ 
-about 10 - 15 out of the northwest. So on my way to Fairhaven, I had\\ 
-to stop and walk the dog because she will not take a dump anywhere\\ 
-near our yard (don't ask me why). Sure enough, when I got to\\ 
-Fairhaven at 8 AM, it was pretty calm and serene looking. We took\\ 
-off for Eliza confident that we would be back in about 2 hours. When\\ 
-we got near Hale passage (Hell'​s half acre)we encountered that\\ 
-northwest wind and the sound end of Lummi/Hale passage started to\\ 
-get a bit rough. Hale passage is a great channel for wind so the\\ 
-waves were building up and hitting our beam. We thought we had it\\ 
-beat but somehow one erant wave knocked us off our ski and into the\\ 
-warm waters of Puget Sound just before we rounded the safety of\\ 
-Eliza island (20 more strokes and we would have made it). No problem\\ 
-remounting and we circled around the point on Eliza and beached in\\ 
-front of Shaun'​s cabin to be greeted by his lovely wife and some\\ 
-coffee.\\ 
-The trip back home became even more interesting than the trip out\\ 
-with the wind blowing even harder and the waves were square with our\\ 
-beam if we tried to aim straight for Fairhaven. After the first\\ 
-refreshing swim on the return trip, we chose to head due north for a\\ 
-distance and then tack southeast in order to eventually get back to\\ 
-the cars. As we turned and headed southeast, the waves were building\\ 
-even bigger and when we tried to aim for the mainland, we went\\ 
-swimming one more time. We were both quite happy to be out there\\ 
-since this was giving us some necessary training that we had both\\ 
-obviously needed. We headed north one more time for about 2 miles\\ 
-and this time we managed to turn and head due east for Fairhaven\\ 
-without dumping it once again. However, this tortuous course meant\\ 
-that we had paddled 17-18 miles instead of the intended 14.\\ 
-We wussed out because we pictured you fresh young alpha males\\ 
-paddling like there was no tomorrow and we were spent. I'm sure it\\ 
-would have been a lot of fun. However, we did gain a bitch-load of\\ 
-confidence in paddling the double in rough conditions and were\\ 
-pretty proud of the fact that we didn't dump when the conditions got\\ 
-even bigger near Fairhaven.\\ 
-Hope we get another opportunity to paddle together again soon.\\ 
-Larry G. 
- 
-\\ 
-**lbussinger50 <​lbussinger@...>​** \\ 
-04/​24/​05 ​ #210 
- 
-Larry,\\ 
-If you thought that was rough stuff, then you'll need to learn how to\\ 
-pray before Bowen Island. ​ \\ 
-LB 
- 
-\\ 
-**Larry Goolsby** \\ 
-04/​24/​05 ​ #214 
- 
-I doubt that Shaun and I are ready to take the double to the Bowen\\ 
-island race but we are keeping that option open. The Lake Whatcom\\ 
-Classic was a fun race for us because we were either with or against\\ 
-the waves and the long hull catches every possible ride. However,\\ 
-this double Fenn is very twitchy compared to a single and the\\ 
-crossing from Eliza did test our balance over and over. We did gain\\ 
-a lot of skill on that outing and with a few more days like that,\\ 
-maybe the Bowen island race might be in our sights. Paddling a\\ 
-double in rough conditions is much more challenging than doing it in\\ 
-a single and further gain is going to require some saddle time.\\ 
-Since the boat is more challenging,​ it is also more fun when it all\\ 
-comes together. Both paddlers have to be in sequence at all times or\\ 
-the boat won't reach it's potential. If the rocking of the boat\\ 
-causes one of the paddlers to change the stroke, then everything is\\ 
-out of sequence and all balance is lost. I think its best for us to\\ 
-show up at a race with both the double and our Hukis and make the\\ 
-decision before laying down our entry fee.\\ 
-Larry G 
-