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6 years ago I had an interview in Albuquerque and
on the way back we stopped at Elephant Butte to
check out the sailing scene (since it is one of
the few places with enough water to sail in NM).
That was May and there was just a crowd of rowdies
and jetskis with not a lick of wind. Needless to
say that didn't encourage me to take the job, but
I'd always been curious about the place.
Today was pretty breezy and I was getting a good
tailwind driving up through NM, so I decided to
stop by and give Elephant another chance. I saw
on the web that one guy launched at Three Sisters
Cove so that's where I went.
The water level is so down that the cove is actually
now more of a peninsula jutting into the lake
formed by the delta of the creek that had caused
the cove. The Three Sisters rock outcrop I assume
is usually an island but now was sitting dry in the
delta. There was a lot of creosote bushes everywhere
which means the waters been down for a while, but
some were submerged which means the level has come
up recently.
I drove down, down, down till I got out to the
sandy delta and eventually came to the creek. My
Ford is only two wheel drive so when confronted
with a muddy creek crossing, all I can do is
goose it which got me across and back onto firm
delta gravel.
I eventually got to the beach, which was pretty
inviting. It was sandy, but looked firm enough.
The bushes out in the water were a turn-off but
they didn't seem too hard to weave through. I walked
it and then drove out to waterside. While angling
the car into the wind, for some reason I stopped
moving. Yikes, my tires were just sinking into the
sand. Reversing did no good. Instead of digging down
to the differential, I got out and checked the
situation. Directly behind me was some firmer
gravel, so I took heaps of rocks and put them
behind the two rear drive tires, got back in the car,
and as soon as the tires gripped, goosed it back
on solid ground. Whew! Nobody to help push me
out here. I decided I had to sail after all that.
The wind was coming directly down the lake, but my
delta was shielded by the hills that used to form
the cove. It looked good in the channel--swell and
white capping.
It didn't look so good downwind where I might wind
up if I couldn't plane. No where to land and walking
back meant a hike through the brush. So I decided
to rig big and conservative and if the wind blew
me around I'd be able to at least get back to the
car.
I got out the big board and 6.5 plus the weed
fin in case I hit anything under the water at
speed, along with the
thick wetsuit in case things went really wrong,
and waded out the shallow beach around all the bushes,
eventually swimming between the bushes to get to
the wind line. No problems so far, waterstarted and
got on a decent plane. But the farther I got from
shore the lighter the wind got. Strange. The swell
was wavey and the chop was there, but not much wind.
I went almost all the way across before blowing my
tack, then having to wait a minute or so for a
gust to waterstart, then shlogging all the way
back across the lake. I made it close to the car,
but still had to swim in upwind for a good workout.
I suppose the wind wasn't able to mix down to the
water because the lake was so cold. I remember
days like this at Lake Travis where the channel would
look windy on a northerly but nothing would be
happening once you sailed out there.
I could have rerigged my 8.3 and gotten a few rides
in the gusts, but I already had a headache from
overheating in the 5/3 with the 80 degree temps
and then dunking myself into the 56 degree water.
So I decided to call it a day. Plenty of goosing
on the way back to avoid any chance of getting
stuck in the sand :-). Driving back to the hotel
the wind blew me all over the road. Annoying.
More rigging time than planing time today. If this
were Canyon Lake it would have rated a 2/10 on the fun
scale, but the scenery and the adventure on this
one kind of made up for the sorry windsurfing! Maybe
next time...
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