Puget Sound sailing, 11/14-16

Eric Johnson (eric@theftnet.net)
Mon, 16 Nov 1998 12:34:11 -0800


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Just got back from an interesting weekend of sailing.

Plan A:

I was invited as crew on the 42' Westsail "Far Niente". A coworker Derek
owns this boat and has scheduled a trip of shakedown cruises in preparation
for an eventual south pacific voyage with his family. The original plan was
to have a crew of 3 and leave Seattle friday night, sail through the night
up to the San Juans, circumnavigate them all through saturday night, and
anchor saturday night at Mackeye harbor on Lopez Island, and sail back
sunday.

We couldn't find anyone crazy enough to go out with us, so we scrapped that
plan. Plus, gales were supposed to blow on friday and we figured they'd be
done by saturday.

Plan B:

Leave saturday morning at 9am, leisurely head to Port Townsend (ne corner of
olympic peninsula), anchor outside of town, dinghy into town and grab
dinner, stay the night, leisurely head back on sunday and be home in time
for X-files.

We met on schedule at the Elliot Bay marina. Got going around 10am,
dieseling out of elliot bay into puget sound. Weather was reasonably calm.
As we passed West Point, a southerly kicked in so we decided to set sail.
This westsail is a heavy ocean cruiser displacing 18 tons. They are built
for heavy ocean travel. Those of you who read "The Perfect Storm" might
remember that the sailboat "Satori" was a Westsail 32 and more or less
survived that storm. The rig is a ketch with a staysail, or a cutter with a
mizzen, depending on how you want to look at it. We hoisted the mizzen and a
cruising spinnaker.

Being used to the light displacement and lively helm of my Potter, I found
it difficult to get used to the steering of the Westsail, with its hydraulic
wheel steering setup. Its heavy displacement and full length shoal keel gave
something of a delayed reaction to helm movements.

The wind gradually increased through the day. GPS was reading almost 9 knots
over the ground, but we had some help from the tidal currents. Probably near
Marrowstone island, about the time Derek was saying "hmm. maybe its time to
douse the spinnaker", something let loose. It appeared that we lost the
spinnaker sheet from the clew. I took the helm as he went to investigate. He
wrestled with the dousing sock and got the sock over the sail, but then the
tack separated from the forestay. We were now flying a big 'sock' with a
spinnaker inside attached only at the masthead.

Winds were high enough now that there was just no good way to get the
spinnaker down in the wind, so we figured it was probably going to be ok
until we got into the lee side of Marrowstone, near Port Townsend. It turned
out we had actually torn the clew clean off the spinnaker, just above the
reinforcements.

As we turned the point into Port Townsend, the winds seemed to turn with us,
so there was no appreciable lee. Winds were quite furious now. Fortunately,
the boat had a hard shell above its center-mounted cockpit, with canvas at
the sides and back, so we were relatively protected. Just for kicks I stuck
my arm out the side with a little electronic wind indicator, and apparent
wind read back as 26 knots, and we were on a run doing probably 6, so true
wind was at least 30. It was starting to get dark.

Plan C:

It was about this time I suggested Plan C, which was "gee, theres NO WAY I'm
going on deck to put the Portabote together in this blow, let alone go out
on the water in it." Derek agreed, and we decided to head for the marina.

We got around the breakwater and the sea calmed, but the wind was still
intense. We had the mizzen doused at this point. It was a very tricky
maneuvering because even with the heavy displacement and the breakwater, we
were still getting blown about. And we had to worry about our spinnaker
fouling the masts of other boats, as it was still streaming horizontal.
After a couple attempts and some help from the small crowd that had gathered
at the pier, we got her secured to the lee side of the guest dock. We used
at least 5 mooring lines of 5/8 or 3/4 diameter, and they were still
straining.

The Ghost and the Spinnaker:

About this time we decided we should figure out a way to get the spinnaker
down, since it would be extremely difficult for another sailboat to get
though the marina with our spinnaker blocking the way. None of the obvious
ideas were workable. We tried loosening the halyard and letting it far, so
we could catch it in the water or as it drifts to another dock. But there
was enough windage on it the loosening the halyard had no effect - it
wouldn't run through the blocks, and the halyard itself had so much windage
that it would just blow out too.

But that gave me an idea. We had a lot of slack halyard left over, so I tied
a bedsheet to part of it in a sort of a kite arrangement. We then eased out
the thick halyard and the kite flew. It was interesting flying a 'kite' with
1/2 or larger 'kitestring'. It was very wet and heavy, but still flew in the
gale that was blowing. The white sheet tied in knots looked like a ghost
flying in the air. The idea was to foul the 'kite' with the spinnaker, and
pull them both down with the end of the halyard I had in my hand. 45 minutes
or so of attempts, and we finally snagged it sufficiently to yank it down.

We went belowdecks and spent a few minutes paying our respects to Neptune,
Aeolius, and Jose Cuervo.

We walked into town (It seemed like miles) and grabbed dinner. This was
relatively uneventful. We headed back and bedded down for the night.

Or so we thought.

Around 3 am there's a huge racket on deck. I got up to investigate, and the
fierce winds had shaken the jibsheets loose and allowed the roller-furled
genoa to partially unfurl. Only a few feet's worth, but enough to make a
huge racket and risk destroying the sail. The furling line was completely
paid out, and the sheets were fouled above reach, so these lines weren't
going to be much help.

In words in email this seems simple, but at 3 am in a gale (now accompanied
by rain) fixing this problem was difficult. We tried a variety of methods to
control the sail, such as wrapping a halyard around it, but nothing worked.
I finally figured out that a couple more turns of the furling drum would be
real real handy... So we secured the drum, wrapped another line around it
several times, and after a lot of trial and error, got the drum to turn
enough to wrap the sail enough to settle it. I used the relatively
little-known "5am-hungover-jammed-drum-gale-wind-hitching knot" to secure
the drum and hopefully get a couple hours of sleep. It was 5:30 when I got
back belowdecks.

I got a few hours of rest. Haven't slept much since, so that's the end of
part 1. I'm sleepy. There's lots more to come when I get the energy to write
it.