Earendil Sails!
13 April 2014 | Bayland Marina, Baytown, TX
Jill
We got to the boat last Monday. Our plan for the immediate future is for Bud to stay here and varnish the toe rail (the top cap of teak that goes all the way around the boat where the deck joins the hull). I will go back and for three weeks do the dogs and kid on my own. I was taking it a bit easy for now, but Bud dug right in to the toe rail.
Being back aboard was not so joyous for me. I found myself looking at things and wondering when they would break. I saw every flaw in the 30-year-old interior finish and thought about the utter pain of trying to redo the interior. I dreamed of simpler ways to spend our retirement and thought I might not have it in me to keep on with this complicated old boat.
Our friends, Scott and Tamera are living aboard, but back working to top off the cruising kitty before they leave in the fall. We'd talked to them before about going out with us to show us where to sail on this shallow, scary bay. We set up a date for Saturday. Scott mentioned to me that we ought to go early, before the wind piped up. Friday evening Tamera texted and asked what time they should come over to cast off. Bud and I thought about 9:30, since we had a lot of prep to do. Tamera answered that Scott would be over at 7 to help us. Well, said Bud, you had better wake me at 6:15 then; he had just told me to make sure he was up by 7.
I, in my usual laid-back way, was up at 4:30. I had my two cups of coffee and was showered and dressed by 6:15 when I got Bud up. We had a lot of things ready by the time Scott got to the boat at a few minutes after 7. They had to loan us winch handles, because we could only find one of ours. I was wondering if I would even remember how to sail. It had been one year and 11 months since I last actually sailed Earendil. It had been 11-and-a-half months since a sail had been raised on her. I was remembering things pretty well as we left the dock. With four hands things went smoothly, although as usual, Earendil went out the way she wanted instead of the way Bud intended but he quickly adapted and backed her out the fairway.
We estimate we left the dock at about 7:45, although no one thought to look. The engine ran fine. The prop worked fine. We were underway. It was overcast and the wind was about 10 to 15 knots. It was cool, but not cold. A fine day for sailing. Scott said the sun would come out; the land heat up and the wind increase to over 20 knots. I'd checked the NOAA forecast for the bay; overcast all day and no increase in the wind until about 4 PM. Perfect.
We motored down the Houston Ship Canal for over an hour until we got to Upper Galveston Bay, across from Kemah and Clear Lake. We pulled off the ship channel, turned into the wind and raised the main. We put it up with one reef, since we would be tacking back and forth across this bay. It went up without a hitch. The jib came out and the engine went off and we were sailing! We did have to start the engine once and put it in gear for a few seconds to nudge the prop into folding, but that worked and then there was only the noise of the wind and the water. I took out the camera and recorded this photo of the crew sailing. You can see that it is totally overcast; we are also pretty much alone on the bay.
Scott said they usually sail on this part of the bay because at 9 or 10 feet it is deeper than the east side of the ship canal. The water is almost opaque, so it looks deep, but I checked the depth at one point and it was about 10 feet. Wow.
We sailed in close to shore, came about and started out again. The sun was peeking through the clouds and other boats were coming out. By the time we'd gone out and in and were headed out again (about 3 nm each leg) there were boats everywhere and we had to ease the main because the wind was close to 25 knots!
Given the wind direction we decided to turn and sail back up the ship canal. As we approached the canal we saw one ship headed towards us up-bound, and a second, down-bound. Scott was at the helm, and he's been sailing these waters for years. Undaunted, he calmly crossed the canal to the east edge. We pulled the main over and were sailing wing-on-wing as the two ships approached each other and us. They passed each other just behind us and passed us without incident. Once they were past, Bud, Tamera, and I set the new pole on the jib, to better hold it out. I took some pictures of this and they are in the gallery. (I also added two photos Jack sent me.) We sailed that way for over an hour and were making great time. At one point we were doing 7.4 knots! That's the fastest I'd ever sailed down wind. It was great to see Earendil perform so well. It was also nice to hear Scott say how well she moved through the water. He has had a lot more boats and a lot more years of sailing than we have. Earendil, with all her weight and all her ungainly gear, still sails like the lover of the sea of her namesake.
I had remembered how to sail, at least mostly. As we neared Baytown we brought the pole down and the jib in. There was one little glitch when I, at the mast, heard only Bud say, "Pull the pin!" and not the "Not yet" that followed. The pole dropped out of his hands and on to the lifelines, but no harm done. Then we furled the jib. We'd discovered that the jib furls best downwind, so no problem there. I started to pull it in when there was some issue and Bud asked me to stop for a minute. I had a pretty tight grip on the furling line when suddenly the line went a little slack and then the sail snapped in the wind and about 6 feet of the line burned through my hands. I managed to get the sail furled before the pain set in. "Oh," said I, " Now I remember I always wear sailing gloves to furl the jib." After we were safely docked and I had iced my hands and Tamera put salve and 7 band-aids on the blisters we all remarked that I was unlikely to forget that again.
Later on, recapping in Scott and Tamera's cockpit I observed that Scott's weather forecast was spot on, while NOAA missed the wind speed by at least 10 knots. All agreed it was a good sail. Scott and Tamera both had some aches. "It's not a good sail unless someone gets hurt", said Tamera. I held up my bandaged hands, "Well this was a great sail!"