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

Saturday, October 7, 2006, I went out for what will now be my last sail of the season. Even though, I would personally prefer to be sailing until the snow falls, it turns out that life has had other plans for me this year.

Eric is one of the people I’ve been talking to about the Telstar, who is interested in buying one. Since he is located on Cape Cod, and I am just a short drive from there, he had contacted me through this blog asking if he and his daughter, Kate, could come out and take a look at her. I thought, if you and Kate are going to drive all the way here, you might as well go sailing for the day as well, to see how she handles. The other person joining us, was my friend Dave, who has crewed for me quite often during the season, and paid his dues working on the Pretty Gee.

Saturday morning, I awoke and got the Pretty Gee ready for guests. I had Eric and Kate coming out to see her. The weather service had a small craft advisory posted, but we decided that it was worth going out in the current conditions. The conditions, when we left to make the 10:00 a.m. swing bridge opening were about 15-20 knots and relatively flat seas. Obviously, that was going to change as we got out on the open waters of Buzzards Bay.

One thing I enjoyed was relinquishing control of the Pretty Gee to Eric and Kate. While Eric is just learning to sail really, his daughter, Kate, holds an RYA Yatchmaster ticket and sails for a living, and it is rare for me to have such qualified crew aboard. It was great to play passenger for the day. As we left the shelter of New Bedford harbor, and exited through the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier, the wind certainly started to pickup. We had extended the amas during the passage to the swing bridge. Now, we were just waiting for the chance to raise the sails.

Once out past the Butler Flats light, we were able to turn into the wind and raise the main and unfurl the genoa. We had two reefs in the main and none in the genoa, at least to start with. That would change later in the day. Unfortunately, this particular sailplan handicaps the boat a bit, and makes her very difficult to tack. I should have kept only one reef in the main, and one in the genoa. Oh well, live and learn. It ended up working to our advantage, as we ended up reefing the genoa as the winds gained strength over the course of the day.

With a fairly solid 20 knots of wind out of the Northeast, we decided on a run down to Cuttyhunk and Pekinese islands as our first step. Although the sea conditions worsened as we left the shelter of land, the run down to Cuttyhunk was a solid, fast ride.

I took the opportunity to take some video of our trip, as well as some digital photos, since I don’t get to play passenger all that often. I’ll see if I can post some of the photos and video on here later.

About two hours into the trip, around noon, Kate said that she had finally gotten sprayed in the cockpit of the boat. I laughed, and said, “It’s blowing 20 knots, with 4-6’ seas, and you’re finally complaining that you’ve gotten sprayed after being out here for two hours—on most other boats that would have happened before we got the sails up.” I’ve always been impressed with what a dry design the Telstar 28 is.

After we got to within a half mile of Cuttyhunk and Pekinese islands, we decided to head upwind, back towards New Bedford, to see how the Pretty Gee would do. These were pretty harsh conditions for any small sailboat, and the Pretty Gee did admirably in them.

The trip back was a lot harder on us and Pretty Gee than the downwind trip out had been. The winds had increased, reaching at one point 28 knots with gusts up to 35 knots, and the seas were more like 5-7′ with the occasional 8-10′ one thrown in to keep us on our toes. Part of the problem was that in much of Buzzards Bay, the winds and seas weren’t quite aligned, so sailing 50 degrees off the wind left us nearly broadsides to the seas.

We all had put on fleece and foul weather jackets. I was the only one not wearing foul weather bibs, but my jacket was keeping me pretty dry in any case. Kate decided to let her father have another turn at the helm. He immediately got the cockpit soaked, by turning into a wave at just the wrong time. Since, he was the one who got the most soaked from it, we were all laughing about it. Fortunately, Eric learns fast.

We all wrapped up in foul weather gear, and the dodger definitely proved its worth, as it kept much of the spray out of the cockpit. We were still taking some over the sides of the cockpit, mainly because the seas and winds weren’t always quite in alignment, and even though were were sailing about 50 degrees off the wind, we were almost broadsides to the swells at times. Kate looked very much at home at the helm of the Pretty Gee, and was encouraging her dad to get a Telstar of his own.

It took us several long close reaches to get up to the southern end of the point that separates the New Bedford harbor approach from Clark’s Cove, and at that point, we decided it was time for the iron genny. The New Bedford harbor channel is no fun, when there are a lot ships coming in, and you’re trying to short tack in heavy seas all the way up.

We got into the shelter of the main harbor, and folded the amas, while awaiting the swing bridge’s next opening. After getting back to the marina, Kate hosed off the Pretty Gee, and I pumped out the bilge. It is pretty amazing, how little water actually came through the open companionway in weather like that. I probably should have left the bottom drop board in place.

I’m pretty sure that Eric is hooked. I hope he gets a boat, if not, he’s always welcome to crew on the Pretty Gee. We’ve made plans for an overnight trip out to Tarpaulin Cove for the four of us sometime next season. The promise is on video, so I think Kate is going to hold me to it. I’m looking forward to it.

While we weren’t really able to exploit the Pretty Gee’s speed capabilities in heavy seas like that, we did manage to top 12 knots for just a bit according to the GPS. I can’t wait to see the GPS tracks.

Later that evening, Rick, a neighbor of mine down at the marina, pointed out that there had been a Small Craft Advisory posted for the day, and that my boat was technically a small craft. I just looked at him and said, “But we had such good conditions for sailing—we had to go out.”

The reason this ended up being the last sail of the 2006 season for me is simple. Three days later, I was in the hospital, awaiting surgery to get rid of a very defective and painful gallbladder. I don’t think, even I—as bad a patient as I can be—want to risk sailing with a newly healing six-inch incision in my gut.