Time for a Sailin' Story

[BassCatter]

The Camp is ready for a sailin' story. Now I know that TheCapitalist is busy catching up on his reading, but I think as soon as he finishes, I wanna hear about the last solo trip.

[threekidspa]

I got one....my first near disaster on a sailboat.

It was one of those days where nothing seemed to be going right. Starts off with a couple of little things going wrong, and they just get bigger, and this day was much like that. We managed to get underway fine, and I thought we had the bad crap behind us. It was a pretty awesome day on Chesapeake Bay....winds were from SW between 12 - 18 kts, and Genesis, a Hunter 33, my first (and last) big sailboat was sweet.

Mid afternoon came, and the daily thunderstorms started to build, and we decided to head in. The channel back to the marina is was tricky, so the practice is to drop sails and motor in. Problem was, the main would not budge. Not an inch, I check everything, cleats, guides, tracks, everything I can see, thinking I forgot to let something loose, but no. We found out later the shiv at the top of the mast for the main halyard had collapsed, jamming the halyard.

So, sail is up and storm is coming. Neither of us know what's wrong with the main. I had some choices: Get somewhere and drop a hook, sheet the main all the way in and hope everything holds. The wind in the sail would at least keep the bow into the wind. Two, head back to deeper water and let the storm run over us, which really wasn't a choice since I couldn't even reef the main. Last choice is the one we took....motor on in with the main sheet loose, and let the boom swing free. Since the wind was on our beam (over the side of the boat) and I didn't have to worry about any accidental jibe, where the boom swings wildly from one side of the boat to the other and maybe further wreck my rig. Motoring in was interesting, but since the main was free, the main never really pushed me off the channel where I would have ended up grounded, in a storm, with the main up.

We made it in, and secured the boat, and found a guy with a bosun's chair to go up the mast and release the main, so we were safe and everything was stowed away a good 5 (yes, 5) minutes before the thunderstorms hit. And they are impressive to watch coming across the water.

If it happens again, I'll release the outhaul (that holds the sail to the end of the boom) and pull the sail in that way. It'll only work if the sail isn't a full batten type, but then the sail is collapsed, and I can secure the boom better. It would have really sucked if I had not beat the storm to shore, and had a free boom and full sail and no place to go in the storm.

This was not the trip where Bamboo let the lazarette cover fall and hit her on the head while she was stowing a bumper, leaving a tennis ball sized goose-egg over her left eye.....

[Hawkeye]

I had a 20ft homemade wooden single master once, a little beauty but a two man boat unless you were very, very good. I had real sailors take me out the first few times and show me the ropes, so to speak, and then one day I drank a bunch of courage and soloed her in a pretty good blow. Gawd, I almost did meself in and did scare the holy crap out of meself. I had her keeled over so hard to port she was taking on buckets of water over the gunwales.

I did an 180 and came back to port wing over wing, wind and following seas astern with my tail bewix my legs and a little pale green from the experience. When it comes to solo sailing, I just as soon take off in a Piper Cub from a cow pasture with an instruction manual on my lap ..... it's be safer. :eek:

[Queen Mother]

3kids, I see you mentioned sailing the Chesapeake. When we lived in DC, my husband always wanted us to take sailing lessons. The cadettes at the Naval Academy gave lessons. I was very familiar with the academy and how big the Chesapeake was. It sounded like a good idea UNTIL....

On one of our weekend trips, my husband decided it was time to really indoctrinate me into this venture. We went to the Academy to talk to the instructors. When I saw how tiny the sailing boats were and learned that the winds in the Bay are constantly changing (kinda like the open ocean), I thought...you've got to be crazy. I knew I wasn't getting in a little boat with my husband in the Chesapeake Bay. He had canooed, but knew nothing about sailing. Sadly, to say, I was not as adventuresome as he - I wish he'd done it by himself though. He would have enjoyed it.

So, my hat is off to anyone who has sailed the Chesapeake!

[Hawkeye]

Sailing seems to most a very romantic adventure and looks rather easy when you watch the experienced pros. But, once I got involved, I learned there was tons of knowledge one needs to learn well, or die. The sea is most unforgiving to the naive and foolhardy.

[threekidspa]

Sailing seems to most a very romantic adventure and looks rather easy when you watch the experienced pros. But, once I got involved, I learned there was tons of knowledge one needs to learn well, or die. The sea is most unforgiving to the naive and foolhardy.
It sure is! I still don't know how the old-timers did it. Definitely classified as High Adventure.

[Fotno]

Speaking of Naval cadets and The Holy Hallowed grounds of the Academy:
We were learning to sail there,just in case we had to know how one day.
I had read about a group of the very first SEALs having to take lessons there also and it's against the rules for an Enlisted man to be berthed at the academy.The SEALs slept on the grounds anyway,just to piss them off.Well we slept there too and liked to have gotten Court-Marshalled,but they couldn't really prove that we did it.
I learned a lot about sailing from those old Chiefs.

[pooker]

What happens if there is no wind?

[Hawkeye]

What happens if there is no wind?
It gets very damn boring and uncomfortable if you don't have a pusher or shade and water.

[pooker]

Dang, I think I might have to cheat a little and put a motor on it. I would hate to be caught in the middle of nowhere.

[BassCatter]

Most all of those boats have a kicker motor Pook.