[Public-List] Public-List Digest, Vol 4023, Issue 1

[Bill Woodford]

Always enjoy your write-ups Gord.  Thank you!

If I ever get to retire, I hope to sail #11 up to Georgian Bay.

Sail on,

Woody
*Latika *US11


On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 4:05 PM <public-list-request at lists.alberg30.org>
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. First cruise of the season... (Gordon Laco)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:20:19 -0400
> From: Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net>
> To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all
>         <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
> Subject: [Public-List] First cruise of the season...
> Message-ID: <E67C7F8E-3BC0-425D-B2AB-CB5442F7D1EE at csolve.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
>
> Hello gang -
>
> This past weekend SURPRISE did her first cruise of 2020?. we cast off from
> the club in Midland right after lunch and motored out into the harbour.
>  Ya, I left the office early, but I had my phone in my pocket so was able
> to respond to client?s requests, this time without that quizzical ?Gord, do
> I hear water in the background?  Are you sailing !??.
>
> The air was very light and on the nose, so we decided to motor out at
> least as far as Midland Point and see what was happening there.   We hummed
> along at 6.4 knots with 1200rpm on the clock, oil pressure high, coolant in
> the zone, ammeter showing a steady charge.  Motoring in a calm is quite
> nice when you want to get somewhere? no remorse or embarrassment due to
> there being no alternative.
>
> Off Midland point there was still no air, so we kept motoring.   Off Rod?s
> place we saw he hadn?t launched his boat yet, but there he was reading a
> book on his beach so we swooped in to yell a hello.   Looking forward to
> seeing you in the water again Rod? I?ve got a good friend in the final
> stages of buying an Invader 36, full keeled version of your Frigate, and
> he?s bringing it to Midland.  We?ll have to come by and cast down the
> gauntlet before you, as in ?come out and do battle?'
>
> So on down the Sound we motored? a bit of air developed but by now I was
> looking forward to a cold beer at anchor at Methodist Point, so we kept the
> mill turning and motored all the way.  Down went the hook (the wind had
> gone calm again so I was relieved of guilt for motoring).   The still water
> was crystal clear? every detail of the anchor was visible on the bottom so
> we could see it was well dug in.
>
> Caroline went for a swim, brave girl, but I stayed aboard reading and
> sipping that beer I?d been looking forward to.   There were only a few
> boats in the anchorage and everyone had the good manners to stay apart, and
> the single powered vessel there did NOT run her generator, so we had a
> lovely evening.
>
> I have to remark that a brand new ?Hanse? about 50? long came in and
> anchored? what an ugly boat, ugly from any angle.  I marvelled at how such
> an utterly graceless object could attract a buyer?. oh well, it?s the new
> normal.
>
> Incredible stars after a belated sunset, it being just about the longest
> day of the year.  A bit of reading in our bunks then a sound sleep.
>
> Got up early, made coffee and after clearing up breakfast we hoisted the
> main and set off for Christian Island.  I do love sailing off the anchor,
> and marvel that so few people do it.   There was hardly a breath of air,
> but that?s enough to get SURPRISE gliding.   While Caroline catted the
> anchor up forward, I pushed the main out to starboard to back the sail?
> obediently SURPRISE reversed away gently from over her hook and once facing
> outward, I let the main swing over to port and out to the shrouds.   In no
> time there was a gurgle at her bow and the knot meter was registering .2
> then .6 then 1.2 knots.   Out came the genoa, and the speed jumped to 2.2
> and away we went.
>
> Outside the sheltering hook of the point, we glided past some fishermen,
> whose voices came to us over the still water? ?what a pretty boat? must
> have an electric motor?.   And the answer from the other fisherman ?no Bob,
> I think they?re really sailing?.   Bob: ?but there?s no wind?.   Well there
> was and enough.
>
> Within half an hour the zephyr built and built and soon SURPRISE was
> bounding along for the northern cape of Beckwith Island with a bone in her
> teeth close reaching and 5.7 knots on the meter.   What a glorious
> morning.
>
> By lunch we were around the top of Beckwith and looking down the channel
> toward Little Sand Bay on Christian Island, the place Gordon Lightfoot was
> anchored in Golden Goose when he wrote the famous song? we had the usual
> thrill as we came in with 170? showing on the depth gauge which suddenly
> jumped to 12? as we crossed the drop-off and the startlingly visible sandy
> bottom raced by beneath us.   We picked a nice spot and rounded up head to
> wind, furled up the genny, and as we slowed I pushed the main out to
> starboard backing the sail and putting on the brakes.   As our forward way
> ended and the boat began backing up, I said quietly to Caroline ?let go!?
> and out spun the chain when she released the brake on the windlass.   As
> the 50? marker went by she put the brake on again and laid a hand on the
> chain to feel the anchor dig in? and dig in it did.   She gave me a thumbs
> up, then came back to the mast and let the main fall when I called the
> usual ?bombs away!?.   We furled up and in m
>  inutes were relaxing in the cockpit.
>
> Caroline swam again, but me, quite averse to early season cold water,
> stayed in the cockpit again but felt very clever for putting a bucket of
> water on the stern for the sun to warm.  I had a nice sponge bath with warm
> water a couple of hours later.
>
> We had another BBQ dinner, and sipping wine went back to reading Jackie
> Stewart?s autobiography together.   I read aloud while Caroline knits? we
> both feel like we know the man by this point.  What an interesting and
> thoroughly honourable man Stewart is.   Thank you Marianne of WINDWARD for
> lending us that book.
>
> Another quiet night with blazing stars? enjoyed the first sighting of the
> season of the diving ducks whose antics we laugh at.  When one dives, they
> all suddenly follow? then pop up again in quick succession, each one
> looking around in apparent surprise at where they are and where all the
> others are.
>
> Morning? now we?re up to Sunday.  The weather forecast showed a high
> probability of thunder squalls in the afternoon so we plucked up the anchor
> early, again amazing our neighbours in the anchorage by sailing off.  Away
> around the northern cape of Beckwith? away reaching down to the southern
> tip of Giant?s Tomb Island and the elusive green pin off Bennett Reef down
> there.  This is one of those we swear moves around to hide from us.  Ya we
> could have flicked on the GPS but that?s hardly sporting.
>
> Much to my delight there was a boat astern of us, which we did the classic
> horizon job on, leaving it a dwindling dot behind us.  Ahead was a
> nondescript Catalina 36 trudging along looking completely ungainly with a
> full enclosure ?oxygen tent? over its cockpit and awkward dinghy on davits
> high over its stern.  We ground him down as we beat tack upon tack up the
> sound, but the air grew light as we closed the gap with him?  the light air
> accentuated the great heat, and it was with some secret relief that I
> announced to Caroline ?he?s given up!  He?s motoring!?  Which of course
> meant that we could now motor too?
>
> Around Midland Point we hummed, than back to the club, putting a harbour
> stow on the mainsail as we approached the spit.   We went to the club?s
> utility dock to do a pump out? there was Inukshook II, stepping her mast.
> I called over to her skipper ?were?s the other hulls??  thinking this was
> comic genius, because he?d just sold his trimaran and now had a monohulled
> ?normal? boat.
>
> Then something regrettable happened? we were tied up and the hose was
> chugging the contents of our holding tank, Gerry was just getting his mast
> vertical astern of us under the mast crane? and along came a motorboat
> towing a wake up the club?s channel.  There is a public launching ramp up
> at the end of the channel so sometimes boat traffic dragging wakes is
> inconvenient.   Gerry and his helpers were having some difficulty getting
> the butt of his mast into the step, and the approaching motor boat wasn?t
> slowing down? worse, it changed its course to come skimming along past
> Gerry?s boat about four feet off and was heading for us.
>
> I jumped up onto our cabin top and made a two handed downward pressing
> motion hoping to indicate slow down please, then pointed to their wake.
>  The guy driving the motorboat was smiling and as I made my signals, he
> shouted ?WELL HELLO GORD LACO!?     I?m sorry I don?t know who he was ? but
> his smile instantly turned to a frown and as he swept past us just a few
> feet away, I heard him say to his companion ?I?m not going that fast?  and
> he kept going.   I called over ?they?re just getting to the critical part!
> point to the guys struggling with the mast? but I don?t think the fellow in
> the motorboat heard me.
>
> Gerry called over ?thanks!? but the guy in the motorboat was clearly
> offended.   I wish I knew who that was?
>
> Oh well? it was a great weekend otherwise?  About two hours after we got
> back the squalls came through; driving rain, thunder, we were glad we
> weren?t still out on the water and hoped those who were saw it coming...
>
> Gordon Laco
> www.gordonlaco.com
> Surprise 426
>
>
>
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> End of Public-List Digest, Vol 4023, Issue 1
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-- 

William Woodford,Esq.

*Woodford Law Group, LLC*

11 E. Lexington St. - STE 300

Baltimore, MD 21202

410.928-4774

Fax 410.928-1035