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West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
List hosted by www.tscnet.com
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Yesterday, with a crew of two, I embarked on my first sail from my new
mooring at Kenmore Air, on Lake Washington (running North-South immediately
between Seattle and Kirkland/Bellevue/Redmond, for those of you unfamiliar
with the area). Kenmore Air is a float plane airline and terminal, one of
the busiest in the country, or so I've heard. It was a glorious Puget
Sound spring day, with Mt. Rainier asserting its presence to the south and
lesser ranges, still snow-covered, on every other compass point. A
moderate breeze, a cloudless sky, and Eric Johnson in his P19 visible on
the water a mile or so south, made for considerable expectations for a
first-rate Sunday afternoon sail. But first, and event that may be unique
in the annals of Potter sailing:
The dock that we share is adjacent to and practically encroaches on a
second dock at which numerous float planes tie up on their departure from
and return to Kenmore Air. Unlike boats of any variety, float planes have
... WINGS. So, leaving the dock and attempting to maintain the maximum
clearance to port for the several planes tied up to the next dock, I cut
it too close on the starboard side, glanced off the end of my dock, and
caught the wing tip of a million dollar (?) DeHavilland Beaver with my port
shroud. Oops. The damage, hopefully, will turn out to be nothing more
than an easily replaceable wingtip light. (An hour later, I found the lens
sitting on my deck.) Of course I immediately secured my boat and ran into
the dispatcher's office to confess my sin. The pilots and support
personnel seemed to derive considerable amusement from my clumsiness, and
repeatedly reassured me that it wasn't a big deal. We'll see, but I am
most apprehensive about the reaction of my insurer when I turn in a claim
for damage to an airplane.
Other than that (Mrs. Lincoln), it was a great sail.
Tim Spofford
P-19 #611
Kirkland, Washington
http://spof.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 30 2000 - 03:27:08 PDT