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Actually, truth be told, only about three days of the five day trip were really rough. But, them three days are unforgettable because they gave me the chance to learn under a master sailing Captain.
Had a message from someone on a sailing list about his trip in Alaska. I thought I would share with him some tidbits from one of mine. Yep, you guessed it: the TFH!Statement
about your
writing:
that's a serious, down home, southern-type
compliment because
I is a bit
of a writer, too, especially about
offshore runs when
you got a
Captain what don't know but two speeds: all
out, or don't go!
This in 40K
winds and 8'-10' seas! On the N. Atlantic.
Hey!
He was game. Me, too!
I
was so damned dumb that I not only knew
nothing, I didn't
even suspect
anything!
Had
two folks aboard who
live
and sail in the Roaring 40's area of OZ.
They had a
s**t-eatin' grin
every time they grabbed the wheel, kicked
the boat in the
ass, and
whooped
as they drove the boat through nice,
choice 8'-10'
waves. I looked
at 'em, figured if they could do it I
could, grabbed the
wheel,
headed
for the waves, and had FUN! Hey, it
worked!
Weird
thing was, the boat
never
got one drop of water in the cockpit
during the entire 5
day run.
Irwin 39'. The bitch wouldn't stand up to
it's sails, had a
hell of a
time going to windward in a gale, but it ran
a steady 9.75K over
the ground
(GPS) sails sheeted in as tight as they
would go--
Captain's orders--
running S to SW with a NW gale! By the
fifth day, we'd a
been in deep
doo, doo if water had come aboard. We'd a
smelled like a
bunch of wet
dogs, including the lady OZ sailor. Well...
maybe she wouldn't
a smelled
like the other dudes... Gotta give the
ladies their due...
There
we all was. Pinching
the
hell out of it, just an instant away from
a serious problem
with the
rigging
if our attention at the wheel strayed
for a second, and
the boat got
away from us.
As in forced, unannounced, not planned for, rig-threatening jibe!
One
of the relatively
inexperienced
crew members (Twern't me. I was the
other dummy what
didn't know
his arse from the hole in the water where
money is tossed to
appease the
hell out of the Sea God Dude) was sailing
close to the wind.
Slight wind
shift-- he yelled down to all of us in
the cabin: "I can't
hold
it!!!"--
and the traveler fitting hit the stop,
busted it, and we
all
clambered
into the cockpit to see the boom
threatening to take
down the
mast. Everyone busted their butt, 'cept for
me, the old man,
leaping
forward,
reaching out and pulling the boom back
in. We re-rigged
it. Sheeted
the main and genny in tight, started
pinching, and
headed south!
Boogie Time! 9.75 Kts!
Hell
of a run that I would
love
to do again, with the damned traveler
car (whatever the
hell they
call it) staying where it belongs.
Just
been waiting for
someone
to ask me to sign on. If it ain't heavy
weather on the N.
Atlantic,
I ain't goin'!
Next
trip we got's to have
a
"steak, vegetables, baked potatoes and
break open a bottle
of
Merlot."
session. Fat chance!
Then,
Cap gives the new
watch
a course that damned near ran us ashore in
the middle of the
night! He
screwed up, but I don't lay no blame on him.
He's from OZ.
Didn't know the
waters. The way point he gave for the
course was valid.
Only trouble
was, there was some land between the boat
and the way point.
What
really pissed me off--
at
myself-- is that I didn't hear him give
the course when we
came off
watch. I sail those waters and live just
beyond the way
point!!! So
much
for them dudes what think they know
stuff-- like me!
What
the hell, at my age,
60,
(when I originally wrote this) hearing is the third thing to do.
Memory
is second. First
is.... I
think
she was 35 when she left, a couple of years
ago.
Five great years with her. Good looking, extremely well
endowed-- I don't
agree that
anything more than a mouthful is wasted, it
ain't-- and many a
night she
warmed this old man's bones! Well, she did
some other things
to make this
old man happy but I ain't gonna get into
that since this is
a family
list.
Here's
a More Detailed
Version of What Happened.
It
was put on my old web page when memory was fresher.
In late 1996, I had email from a
sailor
in Australia inviting me to
join as crew on an Irwin 39
that he had purchased in Bridgeport, CT. Not that I was going to do
much more than drive,
at my age. I would let the young hard bodies do all the work! I knew
the Norfolk, VA
waters, and would sail the boat into Little Creek.
We left Bridgeport in April 1997
and
began an offshore run to Norfolk.
We used the engine
through New York harbor and shut it down after we passed under the
Verrazano Narrows
Bridge. A day or so later, when we tried to start it, it was frozen.
Oh, well, always expect
the worst to happen and be prepared for it!
No big deal, right?
We had a mostly experienced crew, plenty of food aboard, and a seaworthy boat!
Not quite enough! Herb, in Canada,
had
predicted one day of good weather
for us.
Unfortunately, he was right! Again!
What should have been a reasonably
easy
three day trip turned into five
days, three with
gales, high waves, and some exhilarating heavy weather sailing.
The crew of five was on a four
hour on,
four or eight hours off schedule.
We all got plenty
of driving experience in heavy weather! During one southerly gale,
we got as far south as
Ocean City, MD, and could get no further, even though we did off-shore
tacks to try and
get south.
I was at the wheel then, the boat
was
rocking and rolling, rail down,
all of us hanging on
best as we could. I’m laughing my butt off-- as the boat slammed
through
6’- 8’ waves
rolling in from the SE! We’d head for blue water, 10, 20 miles
offshore, come about trying
to get south, and the wind would blow us right back to where we
started!
Should have only
been one to two knots of current setting to the north. Nobody thought
to check!
Maybe I should do my own sailing for dummies book!
After several runs like that, we
gave up,
set a course for Cape Henlopen,
DE, and arrived
there late at night. I was navigating us into a port I had never been.
I thought sure as hell I
was gonna run us up on some rocks, if I didn’t get it right the first
time. I got lucky!
What’s that saying? “God watches
over
drunks and fools!” I hadn’t had
a beer for three
days!
We left after daylight next
morning with
a light north wind. A NW gale
blew up by the time
we were near the Maryland/Virginia line. I took over all navigation
just south of there.
The owner had the boat close
hauled,
almost pinching, and we were roaring
south! Winds
40 knots, waves averaging 6’ to 8’, cross-seas, swell.
You name it, we had it.
During that night’s run, while at
the
wheel, trying to anticipate what
the bow was going to
do when it hit the next trough, I saw a steady 9.75 knots over the
ground readout on the
GPS, with occasional 10 knot bursts! I didn’t even know the boat would
go that fast!
When our watch went off duty,
sometime
around midnight, a course was
given for a point
off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay where we wanted to begin our turn
into the Bay. The
NW gale was still blowing. I was not navigating at that time, but was
simply trying to
somehow get 18 hours sleep during the four hours I would be off duty.
Didn’t work!
I was sound asleep in a quarter berth when we arrived off the coast of Chincoteague, VA.
I had a rude awakening.
The crewman on watch yelled down at me:
“I hear surf! I’m heading off!”
I yelled:
“Claw off,” as I struggled to get
out of
my sleeping bag, turn around
to the Nav table
behind me, and get our position.
Read the GPS, quickly plotted our location, and yelled to the cockpit:
“One mile off shore! In shallows!”
Over the next few seconds, or was
it
minutes (?), it seemed like the
GPS readout was
frozen, as my hands tightly gripped the chart table, awaiting a sudden
stop when we ran
aground! I remember glancing across to be sure the abandon-ship bag
was still secured in
position on the top of the fridge cover!
The Irwin squat and got as we
quickly
gained sea room with the help
of the gale! I was
never so glad to have 40 knot winds in my life. It was like riding
a barn horse heading for
home. The bow sliced through waves, throwing water everywhere. But
the cockpit stayed
dry!!
I yelled out the distance… One
mile off
and feet, at first, then yards…
a mile and a
quarter, mile and a half, two miles…three… Yelling and smiles all
around
between me and
the two crew in the cockpit, as they took us several miles offshore.
We turned south!
I took over all navigation for the balance of the trip to the mouth of the Bay.
When our watch came off earlier,
the
desired course had been given by
someone else. I
was so damned tired, I wasn’t listening.
Yeah! You’re right.
Even though I was not navigating
at the
time, was so exhausted I could
have collapsed on
the wet cabin sole and started snoring, oilskins and all, there was
no excuse for me not
paying more attention! I knew the waters! No one else did, and I should
have been alert,
even with only about an hour’s good sleep during the past twenty-four.
With the course given, there was
one
slight problem: there was land
between us and the
waypoint!
This was not the fault of anyone.
Stuff is gonna happen, especially
when
everyone is tired of being beat
to hell, getting little
good sleep, and just going through the motions of getting to Norfolk
where they could all
sleep to their hearts’ content. Me, I had a water bed waiting at home!
But that’s what happens when your
captain
knows two speeds. Balls-to-the-Wall,
or don’t
go.
Good lesson there! Others have
learned it
long ago. A reasonably sound
boat can take
much more than you can. Never, ever push yourself and a crew to the
point of exhaustion
trying to see how fast you can make the leg of a trip!!!
We never did sail into Norfolk.
Hauled to and drifted off Cape
Henry, VA,
for a while, then it was back
to the Captain’s
Balls-to-the-Wall sailing, trying to get in with a NW gale blowing
us out of the entrance! By
then, we were deep, deep reefed, and had a small storm sail up. No
way in hell we were
going to get in with that sail set up!
I had to go off on him before he
was
convinced we were going to have
to wait out the blow,
drifting off Cape Henry, or find some other way in. We did! The cavalry
came riding to the
rescue!
Norfolk, VA
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