Hours of Boredom, Moments of Terror
I was by far the least experienced sailor of the crew. My only claim as a sailor is that I am a
somewhat successful Sunfish racer on a small lake in the Poconos My foresail is that little triangular part of
the lanteen sail that sticks out in front of the mast. Why were there no telltales on the
mainsail? My sail is littered with them. Oh, they are on the foresail, where you
really need them.
I was shocked and amazed when Mike asked if I would be
interested in being part of his crew on Cotinga with the ARC 1500 to
Tortola. My only experience on a real
sailboat was years ago when I had taken a costal sailing course in Boston. I had the unfortunate experience of getting
incredibly seasick and made sure to get a prescription for scopolamine patches. I tried one on my maiden overnight voyage
from Great Island Boatyard in Casco Bay to Buzzard’s Bay. I went below after my first watch and as I
lay there in the dark, I found the packet and tore off the end and slapped the
patch behind my ear. I felt instantly
better and fell asleep. On my next watch
I asked Mike if I had it on correctly:
No! You haven’t taken the plastic off the active side. So much for that wonderful placebo effect
(medicinal chemists beware).
The patch worked so well that I didn’t replace it after 3
days, but by the 5th day, both Mike and I put on fresh ones as the setting
sun was lighting up the fluffy clouds on horizon. Look, there’s Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck,
and a crocodile, and, and, and….. I can
imagine what Carlos Castaneda was talking about in “The Teachings of Don Juan”,
but his dose was a little higher.
The only notable moment of terror was during a midnight
thunderstorm in a 40 knot squall. The
main was double reefed and the foresail rolled up and the gunnel was in the
water. My new foul weather gear was
doing its job against the horizontal rain.
My glasses covered most of the remaining exposed area. I was reassured by Rod’s tone of voice at the
wheel, ‘this probably won’t last much longer’ or something to that effect. He was right and there was no need for
another cup of coffee.
The next day it was calm but when I read the depth off the
chart at 17,600 feet to the bottom of the ocean, my stomach did a small
flip. The digital depth meter had been
reading - - - since we left the continental shelf. We were definitely off shore.
We caught 2 mahi mahi by dragging simple cedar plugs rigged
to clothes line and a bungee cord. Mike
and Dave did a great job of dispatching them and creating beautiful
fillets. One was cooked by Mike with a
wonderful ginger, lemon butter sauce. The
other was frozen to be grilled and turned into fish tacos by Dave at Nanny
Cay. We were very happy to share it with
our neighbors.
The hours of boredom really turned out to be a new
appreciation of the passage of time. At
night Orion slowly rose from his slumber on the horizon to make his way to the
top of the mast. Then on the next watch,
he receded to the other horizon. Plenty
time to think. My phone was full of
music for the trip, but went unused.
Instead, our conversations were far more interesting and entertaining. Four people in a small cockpit for 10 days
could have been crowded, but it wasn’t.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to know Dave
Anderson, whom I had never met before this voyage. He generously indulged my dumb questions
about weather and enlightened us with his work on historical weather data, as
well as his many other adventures. I am
also grateful for the confidence that Rod displayed when the sailing got rough. And most of all to Mike, who knows all the
systems on the boat and how to fix them.
It was, after all, a house sailing on the ocean, with all its plumbing,
etc., plus all the electronics. I think
we all agreed that the autopilot was a fifth member of the crew. Thank you again Mike, Rod and Dave. This was an adventure of a lifetime.
Brian
Brian
... a few more cloud shots from the passage ...
This a partial Black & White - partial color rendition. In the past people used to tint Black & White photos so I figured why not just use the natural color of clouds lit up as the sun sets to highlight this image. In Photoshop it's really easy - all you do is apply a B&W layer with a mask over teh areas you want to retain the original color ... et voila!
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