[Rhodes22-list] Around The Tip Of The Mitt

[Bill Berner]

Roger -

Terrific story.

Bill Berner
191 South Broadway
Hastings on Hudson, NY  10706

v 914 478 2896
f 914 478 3856


-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces@rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces@rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Roger Pihlaja
Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2002 12:56 AM
To: rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Around The Tip Of The Mitt

As many of you know, I have a friend named, Dan who owns a 42' sailing
catamaran.  For the last two seasons, Dan has kept his catamaran at
Jerry's Marina on Tawas Bay, which is an arm of Lake Huron.  For winter
storage this year & next summer's dockage, Dan has worked out a package
deal over in Pentwater, MI.  Pentwater is a small inland lake connected
to Lake Michigan by a very old (dredged out in 1883!) manmade channel.
Of course, the only way to get the cat from Tawas Bay to Pentwater was
to sail it there.  This voyage involved a trip north up the west coast
of Lake Huron, to the Straits of Mackinac, & then back down the east
coast of Lake Michigan to Pentwater, a total distance of about 350 nm.

Dan & I had talked about this trip about three weeks ago.  It was
supposed to take about 4 - 5 days & we were going to double-hand it.
Fall is a much better time to make this voyage than spring because the
water is still relatively warm as opposed to just barely above freezing
in the spring!  Then, at the last minute, Dan's Father-In-Law & a friend
from Tennessee showed up & wanted to help crew the boat.  Dan decided to
turn the voyage into a "boy's night out" family-only outing & I was no
longer on the crew roster.

They left Tawas Bay on Sunday Morning, 09/22/02.  On Monday afternoon, I
got a desperate cell phone call from Dan.  They were still on Lake
Huron, in between Cheboygan, MI and Mackinaw City.  His two crew were
both seasick & hypothermic!  There was no way they wanted to continue.
We made plans to exchange crew in Mackinaw City.  I threw some gear
together, had my wife take me over to Dan's house, & drove his
Father-In-Law's Ford pickup up to Mackinaw City.  I got there about
22:30.  Dan's crew were all packed & ready to leave.  They were cordial
enough around me, but the tension in the air was crackling like static
electricity!  They didn't even drive back to Sanford. MI that night.
Instead, they took a motel right in Mackinaw City & drove back to Dan's
house the next day.  I didn't want to embarrass my friend by asking any
questions that night & we just went to bed.  The entire story came out
over the next three days on the trip down Lake Michigan.  I will respect
Dan's right to family privacy by not going into the details, but suffice
it to say his in-laws probably won't be going sailing anymore!

Tuesday morning dawned with a 30 knot west wind & 6' - 8' waves roaring
right up the Straits of Mackinac!  For a time, the State Police actually
had to close the Mackinaw Bridge to traffic because of the wind.  Dan's
cat only has two 10 bhp outboard engines.  There was no way we were
going to make any progress dead to windward in these conditions.
Instead, we stayed put in Mackinaw City.  We made some repairs on the
150% genoa & the reef points on the mainsail. (Don't ask, it's the
in-law thing!)

NOAA weather radio predicted the wind would die down overnight & shift
to the south at 15 - 20 knots & waves 3' - 5' by Wednesday morning.
During the day on Wednesday, it was predicted to steadily build to 25 -
30 knots & waves 6' - 8'.  We departed Mackinaw City at 05:45 & hoisted
the 100% working jib & full mainsail.  It was the 1st time I've ever
sailed under the Mackinaw Bridge at night.  Only a few of the buoys
marking the shipping channel are lit & we kept a sharp watch lest we hit
one of them.  The Mackinaw bridge is awesome anytime, but a little
frightening to approach at night.  The temperature was about 40 deg F as
we departed & the air was damp with a light morning mist.  I was wearing
polypropylene insulated underware under my foul weather gear, gloves, &
woolen stocking cap.

About 20 nm west of the Straits of Mackinac, there is a rocky shoal
called Gray's Reef.  There is only one safe passage thru Gray's Reef & a
1/2 nm wide channel that's well marked by lighthouses on each end &
intermediate channel marker buoys.  I was driving & we were averaging 10
knots, sometimes peaking at 12+ knots as we surfed down the bigger
waves.  By this point, the waves were 4' - 6'.  Dan's cat actually
handles 12+ knots quite nicely, throwing two big roostertails out behind
it.  But, it does start to bounce a bit & catch a little air off the
bigger waves.  We were both thoroughly enjoying the ride when we heard
this "clunk - splash" sound.  "What was that?", I asked.  Dan answered,
"Oh probably just the garbage sack of empty cans on the aft trampoline."
I replied, "OK, as long as it wasn't a hatch cover or something."  At
this point, Dan looked at the transom on the port hull & noticed the
hatch cover on the rudder post compartment was missing!  We looked
astern & saw the 2' X 2' square white hatch cover still floating, but
rapidly receding behind us.  We debated for what seemed like an
eternity, but was probably only 15 - 20 seconds, whether we should
attempt a recovery.  Finally, we looked around to see that there was no
traffic all the way to the horizon from each end of Grey's Reed Passage,
& executed a man overboard maneuver - an emergency gibe at 10 knots in
4' - 6' seas & 20 - 25 knots of wind, in the middle of a narrow shipping
channel!  Roller coasters are going to seem tame from now on!  Dan's cat
doesn't have roller furling, so we couldn't get the sails down in real
time to have any hope of finding & recovering the tiny white hatch cover
amongst the sea of white caps.  We got the engines started.  As we
roared back to the spot where the GPS said the hatch cover went over, we
both searched frantically.  Finally, we'd gone back about 200 yards past
where it had fallen overboard & we turned back around.  As we were
coming about, I spotted the hatch cover about 100 yards over to
starboard.  But, with the sails still up, we couldn't get over there.
So, we had to get into position upwind of the hatch cover & make another
run at it.  But, the seas were so heavy that Dan wasn't able to scoop it
up in a big fishing net as we passed by.  We tried again & failed again.
By this time, Dan was getting pretty tired, so he took over the helm &
handed me the fishing net.  On the 4th attempt, Dan brought us right
down on the hatch cover.  I was laying on the front trampoline, hanging
over the bow from my harness with the fishing net in both hands.  The
bow was pitching up & down a good 3' on each wave & I was getting
thoroughly sprayed down in my foul weather gear.  At the top of the
cycle, I couldn't even reach the water with the fishing net.  I thought,
"This is going to have to be perfectly timed because I'm only going to
get one shot at it."  At the bottom of the next wave, I shoved the
fishing net into the water in front of the hatch cover & let the next
upward pitch of the bow carry the hatch cover into the net & out of the
water.  At the top of the wave, the hatch cover shot upwards out of the
net, but I scooped it out of the air like it was a big white butterfly!
As I made my way back to the safety of the cockpit, I yelled to Dan over
the wind & waves, "You owe me a beer for that one!"  The rest of the
trip over to St. James Harbor on Beaver Island was fast, but
anticlimactic after that experience.  The wind was averaging 25 knots &
gusting to 30 knots with waves 4' - 8' as we turned the corner to enter
St. James Harbor.  We watched the storm build & pass thru the area thru
the windows on the cat's bridgedeck cabin as we lay safely at anchor.
Then, after lunch on board, we both took a nap in the afternoon.  From
anchor up in Mackinaw City to anchor down in St. James Harbor, including
all the frogging around in Grey's Reef Passage & searching around St.
James Harbor for a suitable spot to drop the hook required almost
exactly 5 hours.  The rhumb line distance is 40 nm, so we averaged 8
knots!  I guess I should point out that Dan's cat is custom made, so you
can't just order up a new hatch cover for it.  The transoms have a
classic "sugar scoop" profile & the top surface also has a crown so it
drains water both ways.  The hatch cover is molded to fit this compound
3-D curvature & would be a very difficult piece to duplicate at home.
Dan was extremely pleased we were able to recover it.  We celebrated our
good fortune & teamwork that evening on shore with a fancy dinner at the
Beaver Island Lodge.

NOAA weather radio predicted that a fast moving cold front was going to
pass over northern Lake Michigan late Wednesday night.  Behind the cold
front, the wind was supposed to shift to the north - northeast at 15 -
20 knots with waves 3' - 5' on Thursday morning.  We departed St. James
Harbor at 06:00.  Apparently, the cold front stalled out over Lake
Michigan because the wind was still out of the southwest at only 10 - 15
knots with waves 1' - 3'.  At about 08:30, the repaired 150% genoa
ripped out in a different spot & this time the tear was nearly 10' long!
I told Dan the problem was not really with his in-laws, the sailcloth
had simply reached the end of its useful service life & it was time for
a new sail.  We put the 150% genoa away, put up the 100% working jib, &
started the engines in order to keep our speed up around 5 - 6 knots.
We putted along at 5 - 6 knots all day until about 16:00.  Then, the
wind suddenly shifted around to the northeast & the temperature dropped
about 10 F deg in a matter of about 20 minutes.  We both said, "YES!"
We quickly hoisted the spinnaker, shut down the engines, & our speed
increased to 8 - 9 knots.  We broad reached like this until about 20:30.
After dark, the wind died down to 5 -10 knots & got sort of flukey.
Although we were about 2 nm offshore, I think we were getting wind
shadow effects from the high sand dunes along this part of the Lake
Michigan shoreline.  Anyway, we were both too tired & it was too
mentally taxing to keep the spinnaker inflated in the dark under these
conditions.  So, we put the 100% working jib back up.  Our speed dropped
back down to around 5 knots.  At around 00:00 on Friday morning, the
wind dropped even more & we had to fire up one engine in order to
maintain 5 knots.  We tied up to the State Harbor of Refuge dock in
Pentwater at 04:00 Friday morning, after about 22 hours at sea.  The
rhumb line distance from St. James Harbor to Pentwater is about 125 nm,
so we averaged about 5.2 knots.  After we hoisted the spinnaker, Dan & I
each single-handed the boat in 2 hour shifts while the other rested,
cooked, ate a meal, used the head, etc.  The autopilot did a reasonable
job with the 100% working jib & mainsail as well as under power, but
couldn't react quickly enough & with the proper technique to keep the
spinnaker inflated.  I tried fiddling with the tuning parameters on the
autopilot (Hey, I'm a chemical engineer - we can never leave a
controller alone!), but I couldn't get it to reliably steer with the
spinnaker.  So, in the end, we had to manually steer while flying the
spinnaker.

After tying up in Pentwater, we both crashed until about 09:00 Friday
morning.  Then, we got up, made breakfast on board, cleaned up the boat,
& used the shower facilities on shore.  Dan's wife, Mary, picked me up
in their car about 12:00 & drove me back to Sanford.  We left Dan at the
cat in Pentwater so he could make arrangements to have the mast
unstepped & get the boat prepped for winter storage.  Hopefully, he'll
be home Sunday evening.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium