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Voices In The Cupboard

11/26/2016

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Every boat has a voice made up of many sounds. There are the safe sounds, identified and expected, often rhythmic. There are the odd unexpected sounds, a bump or knock or creaking stretch you’d think came from a very old tree pushed by a very hard wind. I never gave it much thought until this new boat started talking. 

It takes time to hear each sound that makes up the boat’s vocabulary. It’s probable many boaters never hear it, there isn’t enough time to relax and just listen. Think back to when someone first invited you over to their boat. It was busy and fun. Do you remember any sounds? Loud or soft? Was there the rubbing of a line, or the mast vibrating through the house? Could you hear the wind? We remember what we see first. Visual memory is fast. The hearing part comes when we aren’t so busy.
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So, at 30 knots, even our new heavy cruiser was swaying at the dock. Mostly protected from the wind by our neighbor, a 52 foot trawler, Odyssey’s tall mast managed to catch enough wind to pull us back and forth with each gust from the SW. The port dock lines were stretching through the bronze hawse pipes with a range of sound reminiscent of ancient witches arguing over who gets to eat the children. All was fine till Sarah started to voiceover the conversation. Fortunately, I was able keep from laughing my wine out over the floor. The next day she mentioned that sounds from the starboard side cupboards sounded like voices. That’s when I started to really listen.

I know my Cal 29 so well that I have a map in my head of every line and sheet and all of the sounds they can make. I know the wind sounds, mast vibration and lapping of waves on the beam. If a pump cycles I know which pump it is. Better yet, I know the sounds my little boat should be making from the ones she shouldn’t. 

It’s going to take awhile to learn this BaBa 35’s voice. She is much more complex, so much more boat. There are deeper sounds with longer periods dictated by her tonnage. The strong superstructure filters out many outside sounds but still manages to tease our ears with delicate harmonies. The hydronic system alone could be classified as a symphony, (which makes it difficult to pick out the quiet cycle of the refrigeration system). 

When sailing I mostly feel the boat, the heel of the hull and power in the sails. I could be deaf and still be a competent sailor. “let my eyes see the flags to judge the wind, let my hands feel the tension in the sheets, may my body feel her speed through the sea as her rails dip into the dark waters.”  That said I think a good captain knows the sounds of his boat as well as how she feels. The sails aren’t always up. At anchor, late at night, the only thing we have, the only sense still able to tell us if all is well, will be our hearing. It’s important to get to know your boat. Turn off the music, forget the video, do what you need to do, but do it while you listen. Learn the pulse and rhythm. It will keep you safe.
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Be Careful What You Wish For...

11/19/2016

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To cruse the San Juan Islands in a sailboat, any kind of sailboat, probably ranks as many sailors ideal memorable experience. I think so and I haven't even sailed there… yet. As I earlier posted, the GRAND PLAN was to take my current sailboat, Ava Chantel, up to the islands this spring and then sail as much as possible. Lose myself.  I thought of all the exploring I could do, the quiet, the time to write. I planned on a few months at first, then as my knowledge and comfort at sailing grew, I started wondering if I could stay longer. Why not? Ava would suit me well.

In hindsight I guess I knew in my heart that I’d always have an eye out for that next boat, the few extra feet, that boat that wasn’t all fix-it-up from day one. Ava was still my focus but with the addition of Sarah to the crew, my full time sailing partner and so much more, the idea of that next boat, the desire to find that one boat to be THAT boat, became a wish, and that wish became a reality.

The Baba 35 was designed by Robert Perry and built by arguably the best ship yard of the time, Ta Shing of Taiwan. The Baba 35 has earned the reputation for respectable seagoing manners, sound construction and some of the best quality interiors to be found on cruising yachts even to this day. In all about 74 of these amazing boats were produced. Sarah and I chanced upon the sixtieth one, currently registered as S/V Odyssey. Built in 1984, I believe  she is one of the best maintained Babas that still sail. 

Where does that leave the GRAND PLAN? Intact, unchanged, in place. Well, except we will not be sailing Ava up in the spring. Odyssey will become that boat, already in place and ready to go. Sure, there are a few things to fix, finish or replace, but all in all she is a much safer and more comfortable boat then Ava. The big bonus is that with Odyssey at the dock, in the islands, I no longer have to worry about the trip up.

So the journey begins.
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Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.       
Mark Twain
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The Best Day for a Sailor.....

11/14/2016

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In hind sight I’d made a mistake when traveling to the San Juan islands to find a berth for Ava, my little Cal 29. You see, we planned to sail her up in the spring when the weather and winds would make such a passage possible. I wasn’t looking forward to it, I have no desire to brave the open ocean. I even thought about having her trucked up there.

Our mistake wasn’t going to the islands. The mistake lay in being exposed to all those hundreds and hundreds of sailboats already there. The San Juan islands are a world class cruising area, gateway to the Canadian inside passage. There are boats everywhere! The second mistake was walking the docks to see all of them. Every conceivable type of sailboat in every shape and size. We saw sail boats worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and others worth less then nothing.

While looking at all of those boat on all of those docks the inevitable happened. We found ‘the’ boat. Old but classic, in amazingly good shape for the asking price. Needless to say there are lots of details to go through. I’ll leave you with a picture for now and promise more information next time.
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A San Juan Perspective

11/11/2016

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The bay I sail in is small. It looks large at high tide due to all the mud flats, but the channels are only about 2-300 feet of the half mile wide areas. The channel to my favorite anchorage is no more then 150 feet wide. Lots of captains run aground. I love using my iPad chart plotter because it allows me to pinpoint the shallows instantly, giving me time to watch for crab pots and debris. During our recent road trip to the San Juan islands I’ve discovered an interesting mapping phenomenon that relates to how I’ve been navigating.

​With my iPad, the chart scale is mostly unimportant. With a pinch or flick of my fingers I can zoom in or out with infinite divisions and each division changes the scale. The result is  that when I look at a paper chart my mind never considers how big something is (island) nor how far it might be. Sure, there are tools to measure distance, but in close quarters sailing, it isn’t important.

Of course I studied the paper charts for the San Juan Islands in way too much detail and worked at memorizing the island names and locations. When traveling from Anacortes to Friday Harbor by ferry I wanted to see how well I could pick them out. What a dismal failure. It was funny. My perception of distances learned from the charts was so far off I was instantly lost. Even before getting on the ferry I just couldn’t wrap my head around how close Guemes Island was. That land right there is Guemes? Opening my chart plotter (iPad, remember?) I was amazed after taking a reading. Half a mile? That’s all? 

The ferry ride only confirmed how mistaken my notion of the island geography was. Rosario Strait is less then four miles across! Once out of the strait every island looked like you could hit it with a rock. I sail four miles just getting up the bay to where I anchor. So, I was probably grinning like a fool as we disembarked because I realized I’d been training for these water all along. They are very much like my bay.

I feel the ire of some of you already but, rest assured, my bay is neither sheltered nor current free. The tide changes just as much and just as often as the islands and I plan around them to have a safe and enjoyable outing. I realize deep water and big upwelling currents I will need to learn about and deal with, but it seems a lot more manageable now that I have a San Juan perspective.
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Discovery

11/3/2016

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The GRAND PLAN for many of us focuses on a twelve month time line, usually the next twelve months of our lives. As creatures with average life spans of 70+ years this singular approach seems a bit short sighted. Bad vision aside we do it anyway and proceed to set new years resolutions or offer the gods, our families or friends, promises of a fresh start and new adventures.  A rare few are under the delusional belief they can actually plan for the upcoming year. That would be me.
For quite some time I’ve harbored the notion to actually sail my boat somewhere. For those not aware of boat protocol this is a step out of the mainstream. Boats should be used a little bit and then left at the dock to deteriorate until such a time as the cost to restore it becomes greater then the cost to buy a new one. So, we buy a new boat and sell the old one to someone without a clue as to what he is getting into or how much it is going to cost. But I’ve gotten side tracked.

I like to sail. I like to take my little sailboat out, turn off the motor and quietly sail from point A to point B. Then I sail back. My GRAND PLAN has arisen from this simple pleasure of coming and going on the wind. 
Call me crazy, but I’d like to go further. Not around the world mind you, just around the corner. You see, just north of Oregon lies protected waters full of Islands that are a small sailboater’s dream. This is where I’d like to go next year. I’d like to visit the San Juan Islands.

With my little boat.
For a month or three.

To that end I took a drive up to the islands last week. I’ve never been there but wanted to see for myself why so many consider the area the best cruising grounds in the world.

I’ll write about my trip next post, but I’ll tell you that the islands were even more then I could have hoped for. I can’t wait till next year.

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    Odyssey


    Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
    Learn as if you were to live forever.
    -Mahatma Ghandi-

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