Adrift at Sea —Dan’s blog on dankim.com

Yesterday, I took the Pretty Gee out on Buzzards Bay again. My friend Dave, and my other friend’s son, Johnnie, and daughter, Lauren, along with a friend of theirs, Brandon, were along for the day. This was the first time that Lauren and Brandon had ever been out on a sailboat. It was also Dave’s first chance to go out with the genoa and main up, the wind instruments calibrated and with a bit of wind. The two photos show Johnnie, Brandon (left photo), Dave and Lauren (right photo) on our way out to Cuttyhunk Island.

Yesterday was not ideal, but not a bad day in any case. The wind was ranging from about five knots to somewhere around ten knots in strength. The day was very humid, and there was some fairly heavy fog at times, but more about that later.

Yesterday morning I stopped at the grocery store to get lunch for my crew. I drove down to Johnnie and Lauren’s house and picked up the three teenagers, and then called Dave to tell him we were on the way. When we got to the marina, it was a few minutes before Dave showed up. Johnnie and I had gotten the main sail cover off, and the Pretty Gee ready to go. When Dave got there, we fired up the outboard and headed out. We were going to try and make the 9:00 bridge opening.

We hailed the bridge on VHF Channel 13. They said that we probably wouldn’t make it, but we gave it a shot anyway. Failing to make the 9:00 opening, we decided to deploy the amas and setup the ama lifelines. Normally, I don’t setup the ama lifelines, as I am generally tethered to the boat when I’m singlehanding her. This was the first time I was going to use them…it was also the first time I had five people aboard for a sail.

At 10:00, we proceeded through the New Bedford-Fairhaven swing bridge, and then through the hurricane barrier. Once we got out to Butler Flats, I had Johnnie and Dave raise the main sail and unfurl the genoa. We then set off to the southeast, to get room to clear Mishaum Point to the southwest. The wind was coming from the southwest—so getting to Cuttyhunk was going to be a long beat to windward.

We were originally going to go down to visit Cuttyhunk Island, which is one of my favorite spots to go. However, the Bay and the weather goddess decided that we shouldn’t do that yesterday. Everytime we got past a certain point on Buzzards Bay, headed towards Cuttyhunk, the fog would settle in around the boat. This wasn’t a light friendly mist, but a fairly decent fog, I’m not a big fan of sailing in fog, since the Pretty Gee doesn’t have radar and doesn’t have her radar reflector installed yet—that’s one of the things I plan to do when she gets hauled out later this week.

So we headed back up the bay towards Mattapoisett. Every time we headed back up the bay, the sun would appear and we’d be back under sunny blue skies with just a touch of haze. I’d say, ”Hey the fog is lifting, maybe we can go to Cuttyhunk after all.“ Yeah, right. After turning around and trying for Cuttyhunk the third time, and having the fog settle in around us like a blanket, I finally decided that if the weather goddess wanted us to sail in the upper part of the bay for the day, we would. Only an idiot of a sailor would ignore the warning signs from a weather goddess.

Now, my crew consisted of two six-foot plus boys and Dave, who is also a bit over six feet tall, and Lauren, who is probably 5’ 8“ or so. Considering that me and my crew weighed in at over seven hundred pounds, I was very happy with the Pretty Gee’s performance yesterday. We were easily getting boat speeds of three to eight knots in just five to ten knots of wind.

I’d like to say that my crew was productive, but as you can see from the photos I’ve posted, working hard wasn’t their strong suite. Lauren decided that she could curl up under the dodger, a top the cabin top and companionway sliding hatch. Dave and Brandon liked the bow, and would trade off, while Johnnie preferred the port side ama, as seen in the photo on left. Dave is asleep on the bow in the photo on the right.

I decided that a bit of strategic sailing could wake most of my crew. Once my crew appeared fast asleep, I turned the Pretty Gee upwind and worked to get the spray off the hull to splash my indolent crew members. Loud shrieks were heard as the cold saltwater hit the crew. The only one spared was Lauren… partially because she’s the prettiest of the bunch, and mostly to her very smart decision to curl up under the dodger—the most protected spot in a pretty dry cockpit, as seen in the photo on the left.

Seasickness seems to be a problem for some people. It seemed to affect Lauren and Brandon a bit, but Dave, Johnnie and I weren’t bothered by it. One thing I do keep aboard the Pretty Gee is a box of ginger snap cookies. I happen to like ginger snaps, but the real reason I keep it aboard, is that eating a half-dozen ginger snaps can generally ward off seasickness in mild cases. Ginger gum, candy, ginger ale or ginger beer also work fairly well. Staying on deck, rather than going below helps a lot too. On the right a photo of Brandon, but he isn’t really seasick…it just looks that way.

We were sailing south of West Island, headed east, when I heard Dave say, “Hey Dan, there’s a big trimaran catching up to us.” Since there aren’t that many trimarans on Buzzards Bay, and I know a few of the sailors that sail trimarans down my part of the bay, I was fairly sure I knew who it was. The most likely candidate was Charles and Hilary, on their center cockpit Corsair F31 . So, I headed back on deck, and sure enough—it was Hilary, Charles and a friend. Charles had his camera out…and said he’d send me a photo of the Pretty Gee… I’m pretty excited and can’t wait to get it.

Charles’s Corsair F31CC is a good deal bigger than the Telstar, being 30’ 10” LOA, with a waterline of 30’ and a beam of 22’ 5” and weight of 3,900 lbs. The sail area is much larger than the Telstar’s, with 429 sq. ft. of main and 218 sq. ft. of jib, compared to the Telstar’s main sail of 242 sq. ft and jib of 168 sq. ft. I also had a lot more weight in crew on-board, so they were easily able to leave us in the dust.

Charles commented that generally the only thing that can catch a trimaran is another trimaran. I agree completely. We were able to catch and pass quite a few sailboats yesterday—the only ones that left us in the dust were either monohulls over twice our size or Charles’s F31.

Around four, we decided to head back in, and see if we could make the 5:15 bridge opening. We dropped the mainsail as we approached the Hurricane Barrier. As I looked aft, down the main shipping channel for New Bedford Harbor, I could see a long stream of ships and boats coming in from the weekend. The mix included sailboats, powerboats, and fishing trawlers.

We passed through the swing bridge and thanked the bridge crew at 5:20 or so, and folded the amas on our way back to the marina. Dave asked if he could dock the boat, so I let him. With a little help from Tony, who owns the boat in the slip next to mine, we got the Pretty Gee tied up. After a half-hour of washing the boat down and treating the stainless steel, and covering the main sail, winches and tiller, we were ready for dinner.

Although Johnnie and I decided that we’d make getting dinner at Margaret’s a post-sailing day tradition, we had to go to Mike’s, which is a nice Italian restaurant in Mattapoisett. Margaret’s had a wait of over an hour, and we were too hungry to wait that long. After dinner at Mike’s, we went back to Margaret’s and had ice cream from the little ice cream shop next door to Margaret’s. The little ice cream shop has become a tradition for us as well. Then it was time to drop my crew off for the night.

It appears that I have another two converts to the sport of sailing. Lauren and Brandon have both volunteered to crew again if given a chance.