a sorry tale, part 1
Bernard Johnson (slithytove@earthlink.net)
Sun, 11 Apr 1999 17:47:13 -0700
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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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At the urging of Harry Gordon, I am going to recount the details of, and
the events leading up to, the ignominious end to my day's outing in and
around the Ventura harbor.
As some of you may recall, I started the day preoccupied with reducing
the amount of time it took me to launch the boat. ( a P15 by the way).
the day started off badly immediately. I couldn't get the parking permit
dispenser to accept any of my dollar bills, and so 5 mins. of my record
setting attempt was blown before I even started. Nevertheless, I
consoled myself with the thought that my ingenious mast stepping routine
(as yet untried) would recoup some of the loss. Dream on.......Not only
did my idea not work (for reasons I will not enter into here), but, I
couldn't even get the mast up using the normal accepted manner. I
struggled and strugged, and strugged and struggled. The mast would not
go on the step. I finally figured what was wrong (won't bore you with
details) (maybe I have already bored you, but nobody is forcing you to
read this you know!), suffice it to say another 15 mins down the tube.
A stray thought just crept in here...Did any of you ever use that bottle
cork that comes with the boat, the one used to plug the cockpit drain?
Well, if you do, don't knock over an open can of coke, because it works,
and your coke won't drain out. If you are a thorough person, as I am,
you probably rammed the cork home quite hard (after all you don't want
it to leak, do you?), and the small amount of cork left protruding is
rather difficult to get hold of. You will not get it out using fingers
alone. You won't push it out from the other side using your little
finger (the only one small enough to go in the hole) either, because it
is not long enough, so, unless you have something long and thin to put
in the hole (as the actress said to the bishop), the cork stays. Anyway,
back to my story. Everything else worked great though, and I finished up
motoring away from the ramp exactly one hour after pulling into the
parking lot.
My plan was to sail to Channel Islands harbor and return, a distance of
some 12 miles total. The weather forecast had been for 4 ft. swells with
interval of 14 secs. When I got outside the harbor (Ventura harbor that
is), I started having second thoughts. The swells were, in my
estimation, about 6ft. with intervals of about 8 secs., on top of which
the occasional one had a breaking crest. These are swells? The Potter
was happy enough though. I , however, didn't feel comfortable continuing
, since I am still getting to know the boat, and it appeared that
conditions would worsen rather than get better. Consequently I chose to
return to the harbor and just potter about. I tied up to a floating bait
platform and enjoyed my lunch, taking advantage of the time to spill my
coke. By this time, the breeze had freshened noticeably, and I though I
would take the opportunity to sail in the harbor, pushing the boat to a
good heel. After a while I decided that I would venture one last time
outside the harbor to experience some thing a little more exciting, then
I would call it a day. As I approached the mouth of the harbor, it was
readily apparent that conditions had worsened somewhat from earlier in
the day since waves were constantly breaking over the breakwater. This
was when I made a bad decision. I decided to sail on the protected side
of the breakwater instead of going outside. This is an area that I have
sailed in many times before, indeed I had been sailing there only 3
weeks before with no indication at all of any problems. the depth had
always been approx. 6-10ft. Here is my situation. I have the keel
locked down and the hatch board in place (because I had been planning to
go outside in fairly rough conditions). The wind was fairly light in the
shadow of the breakwater and as far as I knew there was nothing to be
concerned about. Things started to go wrong. The first thing that
happened was, the boat started leaning to windward. This just short
circuited my mind! It threw me off balance literally and mentally. This
was crazy. Thought were firing off like firecrackers. How could you
possibly lean into the wind? You can't! But I am! Maybe I got nudged by
a big fish! Did the wind suddenly change 180 degrees? If it did it isn't
strong enough anyway! What is happening? Now the boat is leaning the
other way! Huh? Boat has a mind of it's own. I'm in shock, trying to
make sense of one inexplicable thing after another. Boat is completely
unresponsive...finally it dawns on me, "I must have hit bottom!"
Now there was a fairly strong surge due to the waves coming around the
other end of the breakwater, and this was throwing the boat about a bit,
which did nothing to lessen my confusion.