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Teachable moments on a weekend adventure

Andrew Means

Member III
I'm new to this board, so I may not be putting this in the right forum, but I thought I'd share.

A little bit of back story - I and a few of my friends own an Ericson 27, 'Wino Country Safari' and sail it often around Seattle's Lake Union and occasionally around Puget Sound, up to the San Juans. I've been sailing around these waters for about 15 years on my folks' Cal 29, and we bought the Wino back in May of this year (after an ill-fated Thunderbird the year before). Even though I've been sailing for a long time I've only had my own boat for about two years, and most of that sailing has been on Lake Union and Washington, so I still have a lot to learn.

On this particular adventure my original plan was to do a solo overnight trip down to Blake Island, but my very pretty friend Maeve lives on the north end of Vashon, literally 20ft from the water and a quarter-mile from the ferry terminal, so I was like "why don't I pick you up, we'll get you off the island and we can explore Blake (which is about a mile from Vashon) and I'll drop you back off in the morning?"

She was totally into it, so I left last Friday at 3:30 and got waylaid at the locks, so by the time I got to Maeve's place it was pretty dark, like 7ish, so I anchored offshore and rowed in to pick her up, which wasn't too bad, but there were some waves and her place is right on this big rock wall, and there's no peir or anything, so we had to hand her stuff down over this ladder in the rocks and we got a little wet. We rowed back out to the boat and it started raining, and the wind picked up a bit, but it wasn't too bad. So we went over to Blake Island, made spaghetti, and it was great, a really mellow evening.

Around noon the next day we headed back to Vashon. We were on the south end of Blake Island, which was sheltered from the northerly wind and waves so when we got to the north end of Vashon we were bearing the full brunt of all the wind and waves that had been worked up straight down Puget sound, all the way from Admiralty Inlet at Port Townsend. It was like 4ft waves, 20kt winds.

So we anchor about 200 yards offshore, and I'm like "okay, let's get you... where's the dinghy?" The dinghy had worked itself free from the wimpy knot I had tied and was drifting towards shore. I frantically hoisted anchor but soon realized that the water was pretty shallow, and we would likely run aground if we chased the dinghy, so I dropped the anchor again and I was like "well. I guess I'm going to have to swim for it."

So I stripped down to my underwear and t-shirt, put on a life jacket and some crappy old tennis shoes and jumped in. It was pretty cold, but I soon just focused on getting to shore. Half of the time I was between the waves so I couldn't see anything but water and even with the life jacket they kept going over my head. So I make it to shore, where I've caught these glimpses of people running around, and I get there and this guy is standing there and he's like "well, here, why don't you talk to him" and hands me the phone and this lady on the other end is like "how old is he?" and I'm like "I think I'm the 'he' you're talking about - I'm fine" (They had called 911) This other voice chimes in and is like "sir, do you need the police to assist you?" and I was like "no, everybody's okay, we're all fine." and they were like "okay, we'll cancel the 911." The people were really worried and thought I would be hypothermic or something, they kept trying to get me a towel or a warm shower or something.

Anyway, so then I assure the folks that I'm okay and row the dinghy back to the boat - but the whole time I'm thinking - 'you know, Maeve's laptop and stuff is going to get *soaked* if we try to transport her in all this crazyiness, and there's a very real chance of us swamping this chintzy dinghy...' so when I got back to the boat I said - "What if we head back to Seattle and I just give you a ride back to Fauntleroy?" to which the very patient Maeve agreed. I'm not sure what all factors led to her making that decision, but I'm sure my spastic rowing back to the boat and my drowned rat appearance pulled on her her heartstrings.

So I try to haul in the anchor, but the force of the waves and the wind have set it like a motherfucker, and are pulling the boat way harder than I can, so we have to take the anchor line and run it to the winch on the mast and crank it in that way - then as soon as the anchor is up we start drifting back towards land (we were only in 12 feet of water to start out with), so I have to run back to start the motor, leaving Maeve holding the anchor. But the "long shaft" on the outboard isn't long enough, and the waves were so big that the motor spent half the time out of the water, going between chugging through the water and racing when out. Okay, so then let's get some canvas up. But of course, the halyards were completely tangled because I hadn't tightened them down before heading to bed, and we couldn't really keep the boat into the wind because the waves were so big. So rather sheepishly I was like "uhh, let's get into the lee of Blake Island to sort things out."

So we limped back to Blake but by that time it was like 4 o'clock - too late to mount another attempt to sail all the way back to Seattle before dark, especially in that wind - so I assured Maeve "listen, we'll just wake up really early in the morning and motor back; things generally calm down in the morning, it'll be like glass." So we tied up to the same buoy, another night at Blake Island...

I couldn't sleep at all, because we had kelp banging on the hull, so at 4am I'm like "screw it, I can't sleep, I'm sure the wind has calmed down by now, I'm going to go for it." The moon was out, it was actually really beautiful, and we had plenty of visibility, so I wasn't worried about darkness, I was just thinking, if we can get to the locks by 6 I can drop Maeve off at the ferry terminal and be in my own bed by 8...

So I get up and start motoring and sure enough as soon as I get out from behind Blake Island it is BLOWING. Engine's out of the water, the boat is banging around (I am sure Maeve was tossed out of her bunk at least once), and after 20 minutes I haven't made any northerly progress and I'm really worried about damaging the motor, so I retreat once again back to Blake. At this point I (finally) check the NOAA weather on my iPhone and there's a small craft advisory in effect till midnight that day - so it's supposed to be blowing hard all day, like 25-30kt winds and 4-5ft waves.

Part of my concern with all this is I don't know exactly what 25-35kt winds look like and what 4-5ft waves look like. I know now that I had been in these conditions before, a couple times, once up in the Strait and once up near Admiralty Inlet. However, at the time, I didn't know if we were looking at an escalation of what I'd seen the previous day, or the same thing, or what. And in a boat with no storm jib (the sail I had thought was a storm jib was actually a really natty old genoa) and only one crewmember (who had never been sailing before) I would rather have been smart than brave...

So I tie us back up to the buoy, by that point it's 5am, go back down to the cabin and inform Maeve that we're back, once again, at Blake Island. She took it remarkably well, especially after being subjected to one hell of a rough ride the past hour.

In the morning I'm like "okay Maeve, these are our options - we can call vessel assist for a tow, we can wait till Monday morning when the wind is supposed to die down, or we can give it a shot with a double-reefed main." We decide to see how it goes with the reefed sail, so I cut up some rope and made reef lines and got the main all set up. We started out sailing around the backside of Blake Island, which wasn't bad at all, but that was in the lee of Bainbridge.

Then we tentatively went out into Puget Sound - at first we had huge waves but not a lot of wind, which meant the engine was out of the water and racing half the time, but soon the wind picked up and caught the sail, the boat heeled over nicely, and we took off, racing up and down these waves at a perfect angle. It was a wild ride, and we took a lot of spray over the bow, the sail eased the boat's motion a great deal, and that, combined with us moving pretty much all the heavy gear into the quarterberth helped us keep the engine in the water. So we motorsailed one long tack from Blake island across the sound into Elliot bay, then went across magnolia and discovery park (which helped shield us from some of the bigger waves), around West Point and up to Shillshole and through the locks. It was sunny the whole time, which was awesome - it would have been miserable if it was cold. As it was it ended up being a pretty fun ride, and I never felt like the boat was in any danger, even when the wind and waves got really crazy. Especially around West Point there were some very large waves, probably 6 feet at places - one felt like we hit a house. I saw multiple boats with tattered headsails and one boat with a torn apart main. But the boat performed flawlessly, and for most of the time I was thinking we probably would have been fine with one reef in the main and no motor, but I didn't want to mess with success, especially with a very patient and still-pretty-when-wet crewmember.

When we got in the locks we shared a congratulatory beer and wiped the salt out of our eyes. Every time I go through the locks I kind of feel like I'm in a fishbowl, because of all the tourists - but this time I was like "go ahead and stare, people - you're looking at the real deal!"

So, an adventure - and a number of teachable moments. I was pretty beat up the next couple days, my arms were sore from battling the anchor, swimming to shore and rowing back...
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Glad you had a Good Time

Submit this to 48 North!
:rolleyes:

Thanks for sharing,
LB

ps: treat her to a nice dinner at Anthony's...
:egrin:
 
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Trucker Doug

Member II
Great narrative! If she'll have you, Marry her, she is a keeper for the long run if she enjoyed that much adventure and is willing to see you again.
 

Seth

Sustaining Partner
2 things

Make sure your reefing gear works correctly.. I am worried about your cutting up some rope for reef ties because, the ties between the tack and clew are generally more cosmetic than anything else (except in extreme conditions), and they are never meant to be load bearing. Most of the time, as long as you can get the clew (reef clew) down to the boom with enough aft tension, and get enough luff tension with the halyard, you should not need to do anything with the points in the middle of the sail. NONE of these points are designed to take ANY structural loading-so please make sure you are reefing correctly or you could blow out your mainsail ust when you need it the most.

All you need is a good, permanently run reef line, and a mark on the main halyard for the reefed luff tension.

Get a good heavy weather headsail, and then (most importantly): Try it out in calm conditions to make SURE you know where the sheet must lead on the track, and how much halyard tension you need. It is a good idea to put a mark on the halyard so you can be sure you have it at least in the ballpark when you need to use this sail. It will likely be different than your other headsails because the luff is likely to be shorter, and/or you may have a pennant on the sail.

If you don't have the sheets led to the right spot, you will find the sail is not giving you the performance you expect-by a large amount. Too far fwd and you will heel over too much and not be able to point correctly, and too far aft and it won't produce enough drive.

And yes-by ALL MEANS: MARRY THIS GIRL RIGHT NOW! From the story you told, you have a one in a million girlfriend.

Good sailing!

S
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
Great story!


May I make the obvious suggestion that in future you NEVER raise the anchor without either the engine running or the main being up and ready to sheet in?

And yes, that gal sounds like a real trooper.
 

Andrew Means

Member III
Make sure your reefing gear works correctly.. I am worried about your cutting up some rope for reef ties because, the ties between the tack and clew are generally more cosmetic than anything else (except in extreme conditions), and they are never meant to be load bearing. Most of the time, as long as you can get the clew (reef clew) down to the boom with enough aft tension, and get enough luff tension with the halyard, you should not need to do anything with the points in the middle of the sail. NONE of these points are designed to take ANY structural loading-so please make sure you are reefing correctly or you could blow out your mainsail ust when you need it the most.

All you need is a good, permanently run reef line, and a mark on the main halyard for the reefed luff tension.

Get a good heavy weather headsail, and then (most importantly): Try it out in calm conditions to make SURE you know where the sheet must lead on the track, and how much halyard tension you need. It is a good idea to put a mark on the halyard so you can be sure you have it at least in the ballpark when you need to use this sail. It will likely be different than your other headsails because the luff is likely to be shorter, and/or you may have a pennant on the sail.

If you don't have the sheets led to the right spot, you will find the sail is not giving you the performance you expect-by a large amount. Too far fwd and you will heel over too much and not be able to point correctly, and too far aft and it won't produce enough drive.

And yes-by ALL MEANS: MARRY THIS GIRL RIGHT NOW! From the story you told, you have a one in a million girlfriend.

Good sailing!

S

Yeah, I actually already had appropriate diameter reef lines run for the clew and foot, just nothing for the reef points. All the same it was the first time I had done it, and I still could use a hand setting them up for single/short-handed sailing. Any Seattle folks want to give me a hand?

As for a storm headsail, I actually discovered that we had the storm headsail from our old Thunderbird, so I expect that should work okay for the Ericson in a pinch. Like you said though, I'll try it out before I'm in a gale...
 

Andrew Means

Member III
May I make the obvious suggestion that in future you NEVER raise the anchor without either the engine running or the main being up and ready to sheet in?

You know, normally we always start the engine before raising the anchor, but this time with the waves so big, and the weight being at the bow of the boat, it would have spent the majority of time out of the water while I was fiddling on the foredeck - at the same time, now I'm kicking myself that I didn't raise the main - again another example of not being accustomed to reefing, hence the teachable moments title : )
 

Seth

Sustaining Partner
Gotcha

That is fine-just remember the reef points are the least important part of the process. I generally do not use them, and if I do, it is AFTER the sail is reefed and things have settled down. If the reefed portion is causing problems by flapping excessively, or catching waves to the point of stressing the cloth and reef lines, then you could snug up one or 2 of the points, or all of them if you are bored.

Until you get into weather WAY past where you would reef for comfort and control (you might reef in the high teens or low 20's), the reefed part of the sail should stay put and not cause any problems. Once you are in truly bad stuff (35+ knots or so), it might be worth doing (or if you anticipate this weather).

Another thought is to only tie off the reef points when using the SECOND reef-where you have a lot more reefed sail along the boom....

Whatever you do, make sure these reef point ties are loose and not taking ANY actual load, or you will probably rip the sail if the "real" reef line comes loose. They are just there to "clean up" the reefed part of the sail.

Have we killed this horse?

As for your T-Bird sail, it might be fine, but before you consider using it, hoist it at the dock. Check out where the lead needs to go. If the clew is too ow and you can't get a good lead (and assuming the hoist is shorter than your HS length and you are able to raise it up off the deck), you can add a tack pennant (up to 3' if necessary) which will get the sail up off the deck, out of the waves, and get the clew high enough to give a good lead to one of your tracks. Don't raise it any more than required, though, as you want the CE of storm sails as low as possible to minimize heeling. The pennant must be VERY low stretch line (Dyneema or coated wire is good) in order to maintain halyard tension.

Fair enough?:p

S
 

bayhoss

Member III
Never ever dive in

Marry the girl. Sail together for the rest of your lives. Learn to brew beer. Never, ever, under those conditions go into the water for anything other than a human being. I made that mistake as a very strong young man and it almost cost me my life. I went in for a lost throwable and got caught in the currents. What started out as a easy 20 yard swim ended as a quarter mile struggle. Stay in the darn boat and buy another anything. Great story. Live to tell another.

Best Regards,
Frank E28 Valinor
 

Andrew Means

Member III
That is fine-just remember the reef points are the least important part of the process. I generally do not use them, and if I do, it is AFTER the sail is reefed and things have settled down. If the reefed portion is causing problems by flapping excessively, or catching waves to the point of stressing the cloth and reef lines, then you could snug up one or 2 of the points, or all of them if you are bored.

Until you get into weather WAY past where you would reef for comfort and control (you might reef in the high teens or low 20's), the reefed part of the sail should stay put and not cause any problems. Once you are in truly bad stuff (35+ knots or so), it might be worth doing (or if you anticipate this weather).

Another thought is to only tie off the reef points when using the SECOND reef-where you have a lot more reefed sail along the boom....

Whatever you do, make sure these reef point ties are loose and not taking ANY actual load, or you will probably rip the sail if the "real" reef line comes loose. They are just there to "clean up" the reefed part of the sail.

Have we killed this horse?

As for your T-Bird sail, it might be fine, but before you consider using it, hoist it at the dock. Check out where the lead needs to go. If the clew is too ow and you can't get a good lead (and assuming the hoist is shorter than your HS length and you are able to raise it up off the deck), you can add a tack pennant (up to 3' if necessary) which will get the sail up off the deck, out of the waves, and get the clew high enough to give a good lead to one of your tracks. Don't raise it any more than required, though, as you want the CE of storm sails as low as possible to minimize heeling. The pennant must be VERY low stretch line (Dyneema or coated wire is good) in order to maintain halyard tension.

Fair enough?:p

S

Very fair! This is fantastic info - you don't happen to be in Seattle, do you?
 

Andrew Means

Member III
Marry the girl. Sail together for the rest of your lives. Learn to brew beer. Never, ever, under those conditions go into the water for anything other than a human being. I made that mistake as a very strong young man and it almost cost me my life. I went in for a lost throwable and got caught in the currents. What started out as a easy 20 yard swim ended as a quarter mile struggle. Stay in the darn boat and buy another anything. Great story. Live to tell another.

Best Regards,
Frank E28 Valinor

Wise words - I was certainly lucky nothing went wrong - without the life jacket I would have been in serious trouble, both for buoyancy and because it did such a good job keeping my core temp up. And although I was familiar with the prevailing currents, there's lots of eddies and stuff in Puget Sound that you can't always anticipate.
 
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