[Rhodes22-list] Salt Water Sailing (was Outer Banks...)

[Richard Smith]

> It is a challenge, and I think what most folks are saying is that you
> must prepare for the challenge before hand, and not take it too
> lightly.  It is a very different experience from drifting on a pond. >

Here is a true story which in retrospect always saddens me.

About 25 years ago we owned a CD-25 which was docked at the Barren Island
(later Gateway Marina.)  My in-laws (non sailers) had a very dear friend who
sailed a small daysailer on some mid size Jersey Lake.  They pressed us to
take him for a sail.

This guy always dreamed of salt water sailing.  After all he regularly read
the boating press which did and still makes much of the mysticism of the
sea.  Needless to say Fantasy was strongly in play.

So... one day our hero and the in-laws showed up.  They wanted to sail
around the Statue of Liberty, maybe 12 miles away.

We left the slip around 10:00AM.  A light sea breeze was blowing.  A bad
sign if it starts that early.

Of course sailing to the Statue was easy enough (broad reach and then a run)

As we all know the experience became very different when I reversed course
for home.  Now it was a matter of beating against a steadily increasing sea
breeze and attendant building wave conditions.  Fortunately the tide was
flooding so I only had to contend with a smallish 1 foot sea but still the
boat was heeled over so that the lee rail was awash (ordinary behavior for a
CD-25) and with everything trimmed in tight the experience was anything but
relaxing.  At one point we took a smallish sea over the bow which deposited
an inch or so of water on the cockpit deck.  Really nothing unusual and
actually rather common for Gravesend Bay.

After a couple of hours of this we rounded the point and took off on a
reach... hull speed...  exhilarating!!  To late for my passengers they were
ashen with fear.

When we got back to the slip our guests abandoned the boat with unseemly
haste and fled to the parking lot and home.

I later learned that the guy with the freshwater boat never sailed it again
and the in-laws could not be lured to near the marina let alone "risk" them
selves by going for a sail.

Fantasy vs reality....

Richard Smith