When the Sailboat Beats You Up, Sometimes you Beat it Back.
18 July 2011 | Monroe Harbor & Lake Michigan
David / HOT & SUNNY!
Wow, what a weekend we had! These past few days have been crazy. In the end everyone was saying how wonderful it was, but kept noticing bruises on themselves. I guess after reading this post you will probably notice that the boat was probably beating on us in retribution for our learning mistakes.
It all began when we were supposed to take another couple out on our boat on Saturday, but one of them had to cancel due to a bridal shower she was having and then in the course of some confusion her spouse to be and his dad ended up being able to come and two more of our friends. All-in-all we had Tyler, Bob, Dave, Holly, Brodi and myself (not to mention Lucky) on the boat. Our first guests got there about 11:00 AM while I was swabbing the deck. Then shortly thereafter Dave & Holly showed up with loads of beer (a 24 case of bottled Corona & a mini keg of Coors).
Very soon after their arrival we pulled the mooring lines and motored out to see the other sailboats clumping together for the race to Mackinac. Mind you there was no wind to speak of for the first 2 miles of motoring (all the racers had their spinnakers out). I decided to slowly raise our sails starting with the Mizzen, then with some urging from Brodi, Tyler and I started to raise the Main for the first time since getting the slides attached. Oops, it got caught by the Cunningham on the way up and put a small hole in it (thankfully not in a place that will tear too easily). Now we get to learn how to patch a sail. Then we pulled out the whopping Genoa, all 130% of it. While there was still not a ton of wind Dave wanted to see the water intake facility and so I had Brodi aim us and we started to get more and more wind. Everyone was finally saying “cut the engine, cut the engine, let’s sail” so we did just that and at about three miles from our mooring can we started to sail on pure wind alone. What a feeling, what a rush, what freedom. We started noticing that we were gaining momentum and the sails were filling and looking good.
Brodi kept us on a good heading and then we cut over, jibing while I helped the Genoa across the deck, getting everyone involved whether they wanted to or not (Bob had one line of the Genoa and Dave took the other while Tyler and I freed it up for some hang-ups). Wow, such great teamwork from a crew that had little to no experience working together or on a boat for that matter. After awhile Brodi tired of standing at the wheel and we started trading off the job (Dave was next).
Dave was really getting into it after his initial frustration at how to steer and manage the wind at the same time (sailboats don’t turn like cars and don’t like to be overcorrected). Once he learned this, with some coaching from Brodi, he became a master at it. Dave was pumped up when he saw that he got the boat up to 6 knots. Then Holly wanted a try – she encountered the same initial learning curves that Dave did with steering and wind, but also figured it out pretty quick and once she learned to not look at the compass, and instead to look at the wind vane & to turn away from the wind, she took to it very well. Holly was calling out every time she hit a new speed record (to the cheers of everyone). Then someone clicked a switch on the speedometer and noticed that we were only going 5 knots and that we had actually been celebrating our distance traveled (rookie mistake). But after that we really got into it and I believe that while Tyler was at the helm next that we actually hit 6 knots.
Finally, while I was at the helm, it was late enough in the day that I figured we should start heading south back toward the can. So, I had everyone prepare to come about and again everyone seemed to be energized by the opportunity to perform a maneuver. They did swimmingly! I was sooo excited to see a group working together on my boat that I forgot that it was only our third time actually sailing the vessel. I took us on a heading toward another water treatment facility and handed off the helm to Brodi.
When we got close to the facility I noticed warning buoys floating around it and warned Brodi – she then corrected our course and was on the lookout for them. After sailing us down south of Monroe Harbor we decided to turn north again and I took over.
I brought us within 100 feet of the planetarium so that all the tourists could take pictures of my beautiful boat (too bad I’ll never see the photos). Then Tyler got a call from Liz saying that the shower was over and they wanted him and his dad to come home. So, we headed back to the harbor. At which time Brodi took the helm while Dave and I took down the sails. While motoring in Brodi decided to drop Tyler and Bob off at the harbor wall (not the stop and go & not our can). This was another first for us and although I was nervous – we did better than I had feared. On our first pass we hit the wall with a rub rail (because we had the bumpers too low) and broke part of it off, but thankfully no damage to the hull. The second pass I was waiting on shore for them and caught the boat flawlessly (with a bit of good steering on Brodi’s part). We unloaded two of our passengers and Holly took Lucky to the grass to do his business.
After a while I was getting over my horror about breaking the rub rail and against my slanted judgment we took the boat back out into the lake instead of taking it to the can so that I could look over the damage and dwell on it. But by going out, I mostly forgot about the damage as Dave and I put up the sails. But there was really no wind to speak of and we were just luffing. We tried many different things but there wasn’t much to do so we dropped the sails and motored around a bit. The day had gotten so hot that Holly decided that she wanted to see how the water was. She slipped into the water down the swim ladder and wanted Dave to speed up the boat. And so we dragged her along and she loved it. So, I decided to join her. Amidst the diesel fumes in my face and the fact that my shorts were falling off (Holly decided to help me and kept pulling them back up), Dave pulled us through the water. Dave was the next to jump in and then when I pulled myself out, Brodi climbed into the water. We traded back and forth and lost Brodi and Holly for while, but Dave and I did a good job of circling the boat back around to them (woman overboard drill – no lifesling necessary). After a few hours of diving off the boat and generally enjoying the lake we decided to head in and avoid coming in after dark. We managed to make it back to the mooring can just as the sun was setting behind Chicago. I got to show Dave how to pick up the lines and set them.
We all lay around drinking and barbecuing some more brats for a few hours until, as a group, we all decided to watch the fireworks and sleep on the boat for the night. Brodi had the opportunity to test out her mattresses on some guinea pigs. Such a gracias hostess, she prepped everyone’s bed and called it a night. We all awoke to the sun very early (6:30 ish), but nobody wanted to get up (least of all Lucky who was sleeping on Holly’s pillow and forehead). But at about 8:30, Brodi ambled out of bed and hailed a tender to take Lucky for a potty break and talk to the Harbor Master about our head inspection. When she returned we pulled off the can and headed for the dock to pump the head and clean the boat. I had to head to work so the rest of the weekend belonged to Brodi, Dave, and Holly.