Any other Sailors here?

[JimC]

Update on JimC
We moved our CP 23D to Palacois, TX last week, Hard to get off the salt water. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Hope to get down often to explore more of the Texas coast.
palacios is about half way from rockport and Galvestion .

[Pat]

Hazmat, I'm not sure if it is better late than never or never than late but here goes...

I learned to sail on Mission bay in San Diego while on leave from my USAF responsibilities a month before discharge. We were staying with my sister-in-law whose address was on Bayside walk, no street just a sidewalk and then the bay.

They let a friend keep a small catboat in the front yard (beach). He came over one day with sails and rudder in hand to go for a sail and asked if I would like to go along, so I did. After about 15 minutes of wordless observation he asked if I would like to sail so I said yes and did. After about 5 minutes or so of tacking upwind and reaching (with no comments from him) he had me take it back to the beach and asked my wife and sis-in-law if they wanted to go for a sail. They hopped in and he pushed us off, waved good-by, and away we went. My sis-in-law was impressed with my skill and asked how long I had been sailing. I glanced at my watch and said almost a half hour including when I was just a passenger.

Since then I worked my way up to a twin bilge keel Birtish built 17 footer that we sailed to Catalina Island a couple times and to some Islands off the coast of Baja a few times. We graduated up in size a few times and ended up living on our last boat for nearly nine years. We sold it after nearly 20 yrs of ownership. Along the way we did 10 years in USCG Aux. in coastal search and rescue, did vessel exams, and I taught various aspects of sailing, seamanship and small boat handling.

My only contact with Martha's Vineyard and other places you mentioned was that the US Power Squadron and US Coast Guard both use training materials that include charts in those areas. We had to work so many nav problems with charts for back there that I almost feel like I sailed there for years.

To date the fastest I have ever personally driven a sailboat (displacement monohull) was about 14 kts. I say "about" because the knot meter pegged out at 12 and we accelerated pretty good after that. We were repetitively surfing a 34 ft fin keel sloop with free standing spade rudder down the faces of storm waves with only a reefed main up. Had almost enough wind to propel a Freedom. I had a vang and preventer rigged but took an accidental flying jibe as I was trying to hold some distance off an island we were passing and the shock disassembled a good Harken block. Luckily extruding a good sized piece of stainless steel through an orifice absorbed much of the energy and the rig wasn't particularly stressed. (Pure dumb luck)

We actually don't know the biggest seas we ever sailed in because it was the dark of the moon and overcast skies. The only light in sight all night that wasn't aboard our boat, "Pacific High", was bio-luminescence in the whitecaps on the wave tops which I estimated to loom over us at a 45 degree angle. Just as well that I couldn't see the waves, it would have been too scary. By sunrise the next morning it was so calm we had to motor. There were swells running in two major directions and a couple smaller sets as well. This stuff was running on average from about 20 to 25 feet crest to trough but was real smooth as we were in deep water. Every so often the algebraic superpositioning of the crests would allign and make a monster mountain of water or similary the troughs would allign and a hole in the ocean as big as a house would form. Neither of these frights traveled very far as their components were going in different directions with different periods but close calls were more than a little alarming.

We had near misses with basking sharks, a blue whale, some grey whales, a moonfish and one time nearly had a marlin leap into the cockpit with us. If you sail long enough you eventually see some strange sights and have some unusual adventures.


Pat

[s1120]

I am a big fan of small boat sailing. I was never into sailing much till I was taken on a spin on an old Hobi Cat. That had me hooked. After that I picked up an old Snark Wildflower. A 13ft foam cooler, with a sail. Well after trying to keep it in one peice, wile draiging it to the water, I scraped the hull. I still have the rig, and its in perfict shape. I am planing to build anouther boat to go under it. I have a house on Cape Cod, near Louis Bay, and keep my power boat on the water there. Big problem with the power boat is it not a lot of fun just riding around the bay. Sometimes you dont want to hit the big water, but you want to go out on the boat, but that can get boring. With a small sail boat, you can have some fun out there, poke into some of the small coves, and just have a good time playing with the water, and wind. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I hope to have a new boat built by the time my daughter gets old enough to learn to sail.[I have some time, shes only 4 mounths old] I am realy looking foward to some time on the water with her in the coming summers. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[baysidebunny]

Not called Baysidebunny for nothin' [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Pat]

How about a bio, bunny?

On another issue... a friend of mine is moving from San Diego to Kansas and is going to give me one of his small trailer boats. It will be interesting to sail in some of the local "fishing" lakes.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]