[Public-List] A mini-cruise.

Mon Aug 8 09:54:20 PDT 2022

Haha, right on, Kris


Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com


> On Aug 8, 2022, at 12:38 PM, Kris Coward <kris at melon.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> If anyone ever expresses amazement to me that I'm sailing off my anchor,
> I let them know that anyone who motors off an anchor when they intend to
> sail is a damned fool who doesn't realize how much easier it is to hoist
> the main when the anchor's already keeping the boat pointed into the
> wind (and once the main is up, then why bother with the motor?).
> 
> -Kris
> 
> On Sun, Aug 07, 2022 at 09:41:06PM -0400, Gordon Laco via Public-List wrote:
>> So there we were…. Friday came and toward mid afternoon the pace of things in the office were slowing down.  What ho?  Thought I.  Am I forgetting something I should be doing? No, not this time, I was really getting on top of  things.
>> 
>> My wife said ‘It’s August already - we need to go sailing again!!’  So we threw gear together and found ourselves aboard SURPRISE Saturday morning casting off.  These preps were not without difficulty.  Food and drink were no problem, but the last item on the list was ice for the icebox.  Two days sailing doesn’t require a lot of ice to keep the box cold, but we do prefer blocks because they last longer.  Our regular source didn’t have blocks.  Oh no.  I sighed and bought four bags of cubes.  Cubes melt faster even if left in their bags, but they’re better than nothing.  On the way to the boat Caroline remembered that we didn’t have tonic water, so we ducked into a corner store just outside the club.  At the counter I asked the solemn proprietor ‘do you have blocks of ice?’  He sadly nodded his head.  Yes?  Yes.  I bought a block.  OK, with the cubes I’d loaded up on, we now had our ice is all lined up.
>> 
>> At the club we loaded everything into the cockpit, noting yet again that the pile of gear seems the same for a week long cruise, or a weekend.  While Caroline stowed the food, I cast off the shoreside lines from the boat and brought the new dinghy I built last winter over to the stern and put the tow line on it.  We finished at about the same moment.  What a well oiled crew.
>> 
>> We backed out of our slip under power, did a static turn and glided down the channel.  We needed to top up the #1 fuel tank so once out of the club we motored at 6.7 knots over to the marina next to the club.  So it seemed did a collection of ‘cakes and flying pigs’.  Cakes are what we call what may be more properly called cabin cruisers. Why ‘cakes’?  because they’re piled up in layers.  One might think in the ilk of motor boats cabin cruisers might be considered the traditional type, but no, these days they trend toward looking like super hero space ship, with precarious and awkward heights and levels.  Flying pigs of course are the type of motorboat with the down-turned nose and accommodations within their hulls.  some are small, others are huge but retain the flying pig look.
>> 
>> Anyway, lots of cakes and flying pigs were congregating on the marina’s fuel dock.  Two shot ahead of us and slammed into the dock and each other, where along with the ones already there fully occupied the near side.  I singled to Caroline who standing on the bow that we’d go round to the other side.  Just as we were lining up, a huge cake barely under control skidded in just missing our bow and slamming himself against the wharf.  The marina people started walking him forward, so we began inching forward ourselves, but then for no known reason the cake’s operator threw both engines astern.  Back he came dragging protesting dock helpers until his wife screeched at him to stop.    He stopped, moved forward again, and only then did we make fast to the jetty ourselves.
>> 
>> We bought our squirt of fuel and got outta there.
>> 
>> Back in Midland Bay, we found the wind as light as it had been on the way in minutes earlier, so we decided to set off motoring.  SURPRISE’s most economical cruising speed under power seems to be 5.5 knots so away we went.  Around Midland Point the wind was still light so we kept burbling along under power.  As usual I consoled myself with the thought that although we weren’t sailing, we were running up a solid charge on the batteries.
>> 
>> A landmark on the coast heading out is always Rod’s Frigate on her mooring.  We always look for him as we go by.  Besides enjoying waving (this time he flashed a signal to us from within his house) we veer further from the coast at his mooring in order to keep clear of the mud banks we’ve spent time on in the past.  
>> 
>> Out and out across the mouth of Penetanguishene Harbour and finally round Adams Point.  I remembered how in earlier days when I was captain of one of the historic schooner gunboats at the reconstructed Royal Naval Dockyard there, we used to be in these very waters aboard HMS BEE.  I’d call the ship’s company’s attention (wearing my 1815 officer’s uniform) and ask ‘who has seen the movie ’The Right Stuff’?  Usually most of the visitors we took out had.  I’d ask if they remembered the scene where Chuck Yeager is setting his altitude record in the Starfighter… he wants to be an astronaut but they won’t let him… so up and up he goes in his jet fighter… higher and higher… oh boy it’s getting dark and he can see STARS! In Space at last?  No…  His aircraft is an air breather, and up that high his engine flames out and he falls back to earth.   Well, I’d say, that’s how we feel when we see that clear horizon of open water… we wish we could go out there but it’s 8pm and we have to turn back to get you ashore before dark.
>> 
>> Anyway, we rounded Adams Point, BEE’s furthest out on an evening sail, and headed west for Methodist Point.  The air was still virtually nothing so we kept motoring.  In due course we arrived at Methodist and dropped the hook into the clean sandy bottom.  What a great place for loafing, napping, swimming and reading.  We did all that and had the added pleasure of having SURPRISE and her new dinghy complimented a couple of times.
>> 
>> The night was very still, sleeping was great, despite the heat, and cool morning came in due course.  We had a breakfast of coffee, pancakes and ham in the cockpit then after clearing up, sailed off the anchor.  Once upon a time this was of course the normal way a yacht departed an anchorage, but we seem to always elicit one of two responses from witnesses.  Some nod with approval, more assume our engine has malfunctioned, not imagining one would do such a thing as sail out just as a matter of course or for the pleasure of it.
>> 
>> We sailed all the way back to Midland reaching and close reaching on starboard tack, ending the passage with a slashing beat up Midland Bay into a west wind that had piped up nicely.  We were home again at the club by noon with the boat buttoned up and gear in the car.   Wisely, I put the garbage and recycling on the hood of the car which made it more likely I’d remember to stop at the club’s dumpster instead of forgetting and taking the garbage home by accident.
>> 
>> It rained, but we’d been home for a while before that came so we just felt clever for beating the change of weather.
>> 
>> Can’t wait for the next trip.  The next sail will be Wednesday’s race.  Can’t wait.
>> 
>> 
>> Gordon Laco
>> 426 Surprise
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> -- 
> Kris Coward					http://unripe.melon.org/
> GPG: https://latacora.micro.blog/2019/07/16/the-pgp-problem.html