Northwester winters are long and dark, and the gray days seem to prolong the arrival of spring. So, when a day blooms bright and clear, and the temperature is moderate, one can't help thinking of being outside. In my case, one can't help thinking of sailing.
My day had already been disrupted beyond repair with a visit to our mortgage broker/mentor and the title company. Why not make it a complete break? I put in a call to our club manager to see if we could sail the dinghy.
The club dinghy is available to all members to sail without charge. It's a small boat at only 8' in length so I don't think it gets used that much. We met Dave (our manager) at the dock and he stepped us through the setup process. I say we because I had my 5 year old daughter in tow.
I had never sailed a boat this small before so I was a bit nervous. To add to my anxiety was the strong wind and extremely narrow path between docks to get to open water. In fact, not only was the path narrow (15' at the narrowest), the wind was blowing right at us. My plan was to tack my way out. I figured a small boat like this could do it. I figured wrong.
Most likely it's my sailing, but my experience yesterday leads me to believe that small, light boats are more prone to being blown sideways by the wind: even with a center board. Nevertheless, with a combination of paddling and tacking and pushing off other boats with my hands, I managed to clear the docks and get into the harbor proper.
Getting out was fun, in a challenging way, but being out in the harbor was a blast. With the brisk wind we flew all over the place. First stop was the bathroom for Camille and then it was the lighthouse. We would have liked to have gotten out at the lighthouse, but without wading boots, our shoes would have gotten wet I'm sure. The wind was northeasterly which meant we had to tack our way back home. In general, when going on a little excursion like this, it's a good idea to out against the wind, and come home with the wind. If there's a current it gets a little more complicated, but in this case any developing tidal currents were working against us as well. Nevertheless, we made it home. All in all a great fun trip.
A note about small boats. They are uncomfortable. Though this boat was rated to hold my weight, I found it very difficult to duck the book and seer (the tiller was in the small of my back). Oh well. I still look forward to doing it again.
Until next time.
Mar 21, 2006
Story: Cuts
The first year we had our boat, we kept it anchored near the boat launch. This was convenient in two ways. First, it was a 2 minute drive from our home to the launch, where I could paddle the dinghy out and get the boat. Second, on my daily walks, I could walk down to the launch and check the status of the boat: make sure it hadn't drug anchor, etc...
One of the most horrifying moments of my life happened on one particular walk. I can still see it clearly. The harbor slowly coming into sight, with no sign of our boat. I hurried right to the shore hoping the boat had drug anchor, or something like that, but it was gone. I couldn't see it anywhere.
I walked home as quickly as I could, and got on the phone. I had a friend who lent me his kayak, and I proceeded to circle the harbor in search of the boat.
I found it about half a mile down the harbor beached under someones private dock. It was a clear day, but the water was cold. It was going to be a tricky maneuver to get it out of there. The wind was blowing toward the dock, and I had no motor. There was also another dock a short distance away. I had no motor. I was going to need to get the boat out from under the dock and then get her under sail before she drifted back under the dock. The tide was coming in, and I was anxious to get her away before the home owner came out angry.
In the end, I did get it out, and I did get it under sail, and I did get it successfully anchored out in the harbor, but not before I had to jump into the water up to my waist to do so.
The really offensive part of this whole experience was to find that he anchor line had been cut. I learned later from neighbors along the shore, that there is a man (they wouldn't name) who liked to cut anchor lines of boats he considered derilict. I was furious, but because my partner still had the boat in his name, I had to wait for him to press charges. He never did, and the issue faded away.
Lesson learned: some people are just creeps.
One of the most horrifying moments of my life happened on one particular walk. I can still see it clearly. The harbor slowly coming into sight, with no sign of our boat. I hurried right to the shore hoping the boat had drug anchor, or something like that, but it was gone. I couldn't see it anywhere.
I walked home as quickly as I could, and got on the phone. I had a friend who lent me his kayak, and I proceeded to circle the harbor in search of the boat.
I found it about half a mile down the harbor beached under someones private dock. It was a clear day, but the water was cold. It was going to be a tricky maneuver to get it out of there. The wind was blowing toward the dock, and I had no motor. There was also another dock a short distance away. I had no motor. I was going to need to get the boat out from under the dock and then get her under sail before she drifted back under the dock. The tide was coming in, and I was anxious to get her away before the home owner came out angry.
In the end, I did get it out, and I did get it under sail, and I did get it successfully anchored out in the harbor, but not before I had to jump into the water up to my waist to do so.
The really offensive part of this whole experience was to find that he anchor line had been cut. I learned later from neighbors along the shore, that there is a man (they wouldn't name) who liked to cut anchor lines of boats he considered derilict. I was furious, but because my partner still had the boat in his name, I had to wait for him to press charges. He never did, and the issue faded away.
Lesson learned: some people are just creeps.
Story: Lateral shift
I'll try to keep this one short. I find I frequently tell it to other's when making a point about tidal currents. The tides in our area can move as much as 12ft in a cycle. This kind of movement will create some good currents, even in a protected harbor like ours.
As usual, this happened at the fully occupied public dock. We were on the windward side of the dock, with our bow pointed out into the harbor, and no boats in front of us. My plan was simple. push away from the dock and do a beam reach out. That was the plan, but not what happened.
What happened was that as soon as we cleared the dock we immediately shot sideways towards the marina next to it. I'd expected some drift because we were on a beam reach, but this was substantial. In fact, I barely had time to grab and oar and fend off a piling. Within a minute or two, we had been pushed into an empty slip at the private marina. I hadn't taken the current into consideration. Luckily, no boats were damaged other than a couple of scrapes to our own. AFter a little thinking, I was able to leverage the boat out of the slip and we were away. Lesson learned - always know where and what the currents are.
As usual, this happened at the fully occupied public dock. We were on the windward side of the dock, with our bow pointed out into the harbor, and no boats in front of us. My plan was simple. push away from the dock and do a beam reach out. That was the plan, but not what happened.
What happened was that as soon as we cleared the dock we immediately shot sideways towards the marina next to it. I'd expected some drift because we were on a beam reach, but this was substantial. In fact, I barely had time to grab and oar and fend off a piling. Within a minute or two, we had been pushed into an empty slip at the private marina. I hadn't taken the current into consideration. Luckily, no boats were damaged other than a couple of scrapes to our own. AFter a little thinking, I was able to leverage the boat out of the slip and we were away. Lesson learned - always know where and what the currents are.
Mar 7, 2006
Ahhh yes, back in the groove
What a great sail we had yesterday. It was the first monday of the month, and time for our March club sail. The Gig Harbor Sailing club holds a group sail on the first Monday of every month.The winds were quite strong; strong enough, that I called Dave to see if we were still going out. Of course, I was gung ho to go and didn't care. I don't know what the actual wind speeds were. I do know that when I left my house, weatherbug was reporting 17mph winds at the airport. I know we had some strong gusts; probably somewhere in the 20-30 mph range.
I've been in heavy weather before with the Irreantum, but it was always alarming. The Irreantum didn't have reefing capabilities. It also had a large sail area so it was very responsive to big winds. The boat we went in yesterday was reefable and had a small jib. Also, I wasn't the only sailor on board. All of us were trained in the basics which made it much easier to keep things trimmed.
It was nice to see that I'm not the only sailor spooked by heavy weather.
It took all of us a bit of time to get used to the gusts, healing and strong wind changes, but in the end we did and had a great time. We practiced a heave-to and an crew overboard rescue. One of the members brought some pastries along as well; a most excellent tradition that I think I'll try to continue as well.
I tried to take some pictures that would capture the inten
se wind, but they really don't look that bad. We had waves in the harbor which is pretty rare because it is so sheltered and small. A few times we even had white caps. On top of the waves were tiny ripples where the wind was ruffling the top. Anyway, for what they're worth, here are a few pictures.
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