[Public-List] Misery Trip of 2015

[Jonathan Bresler via Public-List]

Gord,

Congratulations on a exciting Misery Cruise.  Wish Google maps gave me a
better, more detailed view of the area.
(Where should I be looking, other than buying Canadian charts?)

Getting up to 40 knots is....wow!
What engine and prop are you running in Surprise ?

Jonathan

On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List <
public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

> So, it¹s over now.
>
> Several weeks ago I received a polite invitation from our friend Larry who
> sails the Whitby 42 STARSHINE that SURPRISE would be welcome at what he and
> his friends call ŒThe Misery Trip¹ this fall.   This invitation was a
> significant thing.
>
> For many years SURPRISE, as did TOUCH WOOD before her, conducted a late
> season sailing trip we began calling ŒThe Misery Trip¹.   The early
> expeditions were done in Lake Ontario when we still lived in Toronto.
> Unkown to us, another group had begun doing the same thing here on Georgian
> Bay, much later, I hasten to point out.    One time we and the other group
> bumped into each other up the coast, each on our own ordeal, and somehow MY
> name for the trip began being used to refer to both traditions.
>
> Now I¹m adult enough not to feel miffed at this clear appropriation of
> intellectual property, but there it was.  Beginning about five years ago
> people at our club would ask me Œdid you on the Misery Trip this year?¹ to
> which I¹d reply yes and say our date.  People would look confused because
> they¹d heard the trip was on another date and many boats went.
>
> The tension each fall was not overt, but it was there.
>
> Well this year I accepted the olive branch, and while our expedition will
> still be a solitary one in some years, this year we sailed in company with
> the crowd.  It was a lot of fun, fairly miserable, but not the same, I have
> to add.
>
> We packed up and set out at 1030 Saturday morning in company with our
> friends John and Bill in John¹s lovingly restored 22¹ wooden sloop named
> JAGUAR.  John got the boat for free with a tree growing through it¹s
> bottom,
> and in a remarkably short time transformed it to a better than new little
> sailing yacht.  Since it has no engine, we ended up towing JAG behind
> SURPRISE.  We trudged our way out of Midland Bay at 5.2 knots and headed
> north with a very light following wind.  Off Penetanguishene Bay the breeze
> strengthened enough that we cast off the tow and began sailing at 3-4
> knots.
> We eventually reached what locals here call Œthe pins¹ at Minnicognashene
> (love those Ojibwa names) and we worked our way inside from outside and
> ended up close hauled beating back down around Hotchkiss Rocks toward
> Frying
> Pan Harbour on the northern part of Beausoliel Island.
>
> Frying Pan has a good harbour, and better yet, has a park site where
> there¹s
> a perminant roof over an iron woodstove so while on our and their Misery
> Trips it¹s possible to sit round a blaze in some comfort no matter what the
> weather.
>
> After short tacking into the harbour (I think we made nine tacks to gain
> the
> entrance and finally glide up to the wharf) SURPRISE and JAGUAR had arrived
> to a cheer from the crews of STARSHINE, SPECTRUM, STARGAZER and a trawler
> yacht whose name I don¹t recall.  There fifteen people there ­ including
> one
> woman ­ the later a rarity on these trips.
>
> Everybody had brought some split wood so we carried it up to the shelter
> and
> got the fire going.  I saw an advance party had already wrapped the pillars
> of the shelter in plastic complete with hanging curtains at the two
> entrances... It seemed that we had the interior warmed up to shirt sleeves
> temperature in no time at all.  Food was brought in, pots and frying pans
> were placed on the stove and all hands turned to and ate a great feast.
>
> Later we started story telling around the fire ­ tales of the previous
> season¹s racing and cruising; I recited Eskimo Nell mostly by heart.
> (thank
> heavens for iphone google searches)
>
> Around about 11pm the crowd thinned; a smaller group ended up aboard
> SURPRISE, where we had our woodstove cheerily going.  That mini-party broke
> up about midnight with a toast to the end of the 2015 sailing season.
>
> Aboard SURPRISE we got up at about 730 and scrambled eggs which with coffee
> made breakfast.  What a lovely morning ­ bit of mist on the water, several
> yearling loons moping about and even saw a family of muskrats busily
> stowing
> winter food under the wharf.  A contingent of about half the participants
> decided to go on a hike on the island; I elected to stay home so once
> they¹d
> left I started up SURPRISE¹s stove again and read a HW Tilman book (Ice
> With
> Everything) in solitude.  Wonderful.  I felt very clever and pleased with
> myself when it began to rain...
>
> At one point I idylly googled the Southern Georgian Bay weather buoy on
> line
> and saw a red banner on the page followed by a description of 37 knots of
> wind and two meter waves.  Hmm, perhaps some misery to come after all.
>
> Finally the hikers came back and we set about getting set to go.
>  Decisions
> had to be made.  With the now hard blowing west wind, the best way back
> down
> the sound would be to motor and sail back north to Minnicog, back out
> through The Pins then roar southward past Adams Point, Gin Rocks, round the
> Penetang shoal buoy and beat westward into Penetanguishene Bay where we
> were
> to be hauled out this week.    John aboard JAGUAR confessed he wasn¹t
> looking forward to the stretch of this course open to the west where there
> would be significant wave action, not to mention a hell of a stiff wind.
> He
> asked me if I¹d tow him down the inside passage to Honey Harbour where we¹d
> squirt out of the islands much further south, and he¹d never be exposed to
> the open waves.  I agreed, although that would mean we¹d have a wicked beat
> directly to windward for about five miles into the teeth of the wind in
> order to gain Penetang bay.  One of our friends said Œyou¹re a very
> generous
> friend¹  - I retorted ŒI find him easier to deal with when he owes me
> something!¹   We all laughed.
>
> So, we set about dismantling the boats from their moorings at the wharf.
> SURPRISE had to back out around the bows of the big trawler but as usual
> she
> was docile and predictable in reverse (now I am boasting, but it¹s true) as
> we cast off, backed away and hooked her stern to starboard to avoid some
> rocks.  We got her head into the wind and held her still while JAGUAR got
> clear and with a shove from many hands glided up astern of us and received
> our tow line.  Away we went.
>
> We motored at 5.2kts out of the harbour, then south through the channels
> past Deer Island and the rest till we got near Picnic Island.  Picnic
> Island
> is home of a small gas dock and general store which achieved international
> notoriety last year when the Sierra Club published a picture of the
> business
> as an example of so called dissasterously low water in the Upper Great
> Lakes...  The showed a photo of the back of the building with bare dry
> pilings going down onto rock with a caption saying that just a few years
> ago
> people brought boats there to puchase fuel.  The truth is that  the photo
> showed the back of the building where there is never water to float a
> boat... And the fuel dock was in full operation at it¹s normal place at the
> front.    The business formally protested but of course the Sierra Club was
> not to be denied...
>
> Anyway.  After a shouted conversation with JAGUAR, we decided to try
> running
> the Big Dog Channel which would bring us out of the islands a little
> further
> north than if we went past Picnic ­ we hoped that would make it easier for
> SURPRISE to beat to Penetang and for JAG to beat to Midland.  We hadn¹t
> gone
> through the Dog for years because of the low water (yes, the water was low
> but that¹s normal on a 63 year cycle, according to the records...)    We
> made it through, chugged out on the sheltered side of Beausoliel Island and
> as we got back to Severn Sound, cast off JAG.  The eased sheets and set
> away
> a bit south of west for Midland, we hardened sheets and climbed to windward
> somewhat north of west for Penetang.
>
> I shouted to Clint, who was my crew this year Œdoesn¹t seem so bad¹.  He
> nodded.   Then we got past the end of Beausoliel and the wind and waves
> hit.
> The first scream of wind in our rig sounded like a horse neighing.  It
> really did.  Although we were sailing under just the genny we were laid
> over.  I shouted Œno good¹ to Clint and we started the engine.  In came the
> genny on it¹s furler after some wild flogging.  And we had a problem.   I
> thought I was prudent in setting up my furler spool so that it could make
> five more turns furling the sail than were required for normal fair
> weather... We ran all the line off the spool and there was still about two
> meters of sail out in the air flogging madly.   Because of the weight of
> wind, the sail wrapped much more tightly than usual.  I was afraid we were
> going to flog the clew out of the sail so we hauled both sheets taut to
> calm
> it.  SURPRISE didn¹t much like the effect of the scrap of sail so far
> forward and it was a struggle to hold her head to the wind even with a fair
> bit of throttle.  Then I discovered that the amount of helm I needed to
> keep
> her head up meant we were semi-hove to.
>
> We crabbed our way across the sound to the windward shore at Watson¹s Point
> where we found a bit of a lee and taking advantage of a lull in the blow
> let
> the genny out (which laid us on our side even with no sheet tension) then
> hauled it back in.   This time we got nearly all the sail in.  We turned
> SURPRISE away from the wind and let her scud at about 5 knots while I went
> forward, untied the sheets, wrapped the rest of the sail by hand then put
> on
> sheet back on to hold the sail on the wrap.
>
> Back into the blow we went, and as we crept around Watson¹s we felt the
> weight of the wind again.  I think it was 40 knots.  It was hard to look to
> windward from the wind and spray, but with full throttle we were able to
> get
> SURPRISE up to 4.5 knots.   We¹d come upon a series of waves that would
> slow
> us to 2.5, but she¹d always gain speed again until another large series
> came
> up.  SURPRISE never put her nose quite under a wave, but she was certainly
> throwing a lot of water into the air.  Clint, who¹d grown up in motorboats,
> was amazed at how there was utterly no slamming.... At one point he shouted
> to me Œlike a rocking horse!¹.    I replied Œremember the scenes in the
> movie Das Boot when they are surfaced and chasing a convoy?¹    I made a
> mental note that if SURPRISE was slowed to below 3 knots three times, I¹d
> give up and try to get to Midland (also to windward but a little more
> shelter) but it never happened.
>
> As we made our way up the bay the fetch got shorter and of course the waves
> got smaller...  I was able to back off the throttle when I noticed we were
> getting up to 5.6 knots, and we continued at 5.
>
> Once at our winter berth marina (Dutchman¹s Cove in Penetang) we found a
> jetty to make fast to and again as usual, SURPRISE was quite docile with
> her
> transmission in reverse and the hard wind holding her head down.  We were
> able to remain stationary in the channel while lines and fenders were
> sorted
> out.  Someone ashore shouted to ask if we were aground, so steady was she.
>
> So, that was the end of the trip.  Not so much as a sailing ordeal as a
> motoring one.  However I have to say I was extremely pleased with the way
> SURPRISE was able to perform under power in such conditions, despite having
> the standard factory supplied and much maligned two bladed prop.  I¹m not
> changing it.    Good girl.
>
> Gord #426 Surprise
>
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-- 
Jonathan M Bresler
Alberg 30 #262
Annapolis/Eastport MD