I took the day off today with my intention being to take the girls
sailing. This morning brought scuddy skies and the threat of rain plus
rather beefy winds. My oldest, Kathryn, decided to take a raincheck and
hang out with other family, which left my youngest, Rachel, and I to go
ahead and give it a try.
We headed down to New Road and launched from there under navy gray
skies. We didn't see any immediate threat of rain however and the wind
was really howling, so we decided to go ahead and launch. I steadied
"Aqua" into the wind and unfurled all sail, and then let the boat fall
off a bit while hanking it in and then it bit! And when I say the boat
bit and took off, I mean it! I was standing beside the boat between the
main hull (vaka) and the right outrigger hull (ama), resting a bit on
the trampoline there while slowly pulling the main in and then WHAM!
The boat began to rocket away, literally knocking me off my feet with
the rear aka rushing toward and hitting the backs of my knees. Luckily,
I fell forward and onto the tramp and when I glanced up, we had already
surged past 7 knots and steadily it climbed.
In a very cool and proud moment, my 6 yr old sweetheart, Rachel, saw
what happened and thrust her legs down to the rudder pedals to steer
back into the wind. She was only partially successful but it was enough
that I was able to secure myself on the trampoline with easier effort.
I sang her praises, telling her that her instincts were bang on, and
that she definitely had sailing in her blood!
I made my way into the main hull where I sat down and Rachel sat between
my legs, ever alert and vigilant. The speeds were almost dizzying in
how the boat accelerated. It was quite heady to be surfing from the
crest of one wave to another; the sensations of speed and flying were
unbelievable!
The handheld VHF on my PFD crackled, and I discovered that ECPA member
Brett Coleman was also out on the bay in his Irwin 23, enjoying the
powerful winds but under greatly reduced canvas. We talked back and
forth a bit and after spotting him, we made our way over in his
direction so we might converse some more. As we neared him, he got out
his camera while Rachel and I took turns with the camcorder. We soon
discovered as we tried to slow down to pace him that this was going to
be a difficult task. We fell off and I reduced our sail area by half
and returned to course, but it was still too much. We ended up reducing
again so that we had about 25% of our sail area flying and it was still
too much. So, we'd pace ahead of him at roughly 7.5 knots under severe
reef and then I'd throw us in irons and we'd talk to Brett as he caught
up and slowly paced away.
The winds picked up in strength and Brett reduced down to his barest
canvas while also moving away, indicating that he was heading back
toward the marina. Rachel and I took our cue from this as well and came
about to head back to New Road, but not before we increased our sail
area to about 75%. We flew back, with Rachel in my lap, wind singing
through our hair, and speeds so fast that half the time our SpeedMate
wouldn't register because the impeller began hydroplaning. When it did
bite though, we were sailing in excess of 15 knots. What a rush!
The best thing about it though was in watching Rachel and her reactions
to it; her unbridled innocence borne of childhood.. She'd throw her
head back and laugh, a laugh that simply rang honest joy. She moved me
to laughter along with her, and together we laughed and funnied
ourselves back in the direction of New Road. Every once in a while,
she'd turn around so that the wind made her hair form a halo around her
head, and she'd shout to me "I love this Daddy! Wow! I love this!" I
could only agree with her; I loved it too, but her comments and
including me in her moments made it all the more special for me.
We were within a few hundred yards of New Road and the winds had started
to shift and change a bit as we began to experience more land breeze.
Rachel and I both sighed a bit as we knew our "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" was
close to the finish. Rachel stirred a bit and stood up to get a better
look at our landing approach, and then WHOOOSH! We got a tremendous bay
breeze that doubled our speed and hurled us toward the beach. We
blasted through a sandbar and hit the beach, sliding a good way before
stopping. What a way to end the sailing portion of the day!
So as I began packing the boat up and putting it on the trailer, I
noticed that Rachel was walking along the beach, seemingly engrossed in
inspections of some sort. After I had much of the work in hand, I
walked down to the beach to see what she was doing. Very methodically,
Rachel was inspecting the shoreline, looking for Horseshoe Crabs that
had been tipped over by the rough weather. She was tipping them back
upright, and boosting them back into the water, where they'd scoot
away. I stopped and watched her do this for a bit, with her completely
unaware that I was observing. When she had canvassed the entire stretch
of beach, she turned and saw me sitting there, watching her. She came
right over and said to me in as matter of factly a tone that a 6 yr old
can muster, "Dad, you see? This is part of sailing too. This is part
of our sailing day. We sail 'cause we love nature, and I'm loving
nature by helping these Horseshoe Crabs. See? Its part of our sailing
day, 'cause we love nature!" Having made her point, she turned and ran
back to the beach where she scanned one more time to boost back to sea
the few crabs that had drifted back in. There was something about this
moment, a snapshot memory for me now, that spoke volumes about just why
I do sail, and it was brought to me on the words of my 6 yr old
daughter. Her words were a treasure to me, because she is a treasure.
See?
-- "Sea" ya!--Lars S. Mulford, President East Coast Potter Association (ECPA) Come visit us at http://members.tripod.com/~SpeedSailor s/v Aqua (sailing the greater Chesapeake region) "Forgive, and live. Life is worth the challenge of living." --LSSM "Love is good; Love hurts; Love sustains; Love remains." --LSSM