A Three Hour Tour...
(WARNING: this post is full of lots of boat jargon, most things just mean "parts of a boat;" the first half of this post is pretty boring if you're unfamiliar with boats)
So I haven't built a wooden dinghy yet, but I did help fix up a catamaran. My uncle Georges bought an old one of these for $100, a new (used, whenever I say "new" I mean "different than the ones that came with the boat") rudder and some other pieces for $60, a new set of sails for $100 (the ones that came with the boat had been chewed through by mice and would have been insanely expensive to repair), and various other parts (epoxy, clips, blocks, etc.) for $100. That's a decently working boat for $360. Not bad at all.
Wednesday, Georges bought the boat and he and Spencer did a once over and got the new rudder and a tiller and couple other things. Thursday, we went over the boat a couple times and tried rigging it, quickly realizing that we needed a new jib halyard, a new jib sheet, a new jib halyard pulley, a new jib sheet block, some WD-40, some silicone spray, and various circlips, horseshoe clips, lobster claw clips, pins, rivets (and a riveter), and bolts. The boys fixed up the rudder and tiller that night. Friday, Georges finally got another set of sails.
Saturday, I had a handful of grapes for breakfast (this is important later, I swear). We left for around 10, stopped for a few last minute things (epoxy, fiberglass cloth, the new jib halyard, etc.) and headed for the boat. Georges and I patched up the left pontoon, drilled out the rivets in the old jib pulley, replaced the jib sheet block, rigged the new jib sheet until my mom arrived on her bike. We ate the sandwiches we'd packed, and then realized we needed more fiberglass cloth and the riveter! Spencer drove down with Tommy while my mom went biking some more (she's training for a century). We fixed the right pontoon and riveted the jib halyard pulley, fixed the batons in the sails (we're missing a few), rigged the new jib halyard and then rigged the boat!
Spencer, Tommy, Georges and I did a shake-down cruise around the harbor, we let Georges off to go get some last minute thing (a new bolt for the main sheet block), and the boys and I went on a quick half hour sail and landed right as Georges got back.
Before we continue, a crash course in sailing. You need wind to sail. The currents in the water can push your boat and you and the boat go with them. You cannot sail straight into the wind, you just end up going backwards. The wind can change directions during the day. When I say a north wind, I mean the wind is blowing from the north to the south.
(IT GETS INTERESTING HERE!)
tl;dr from above - we bought a boat and fixed it up and now we're about to sail it home, sailing is "you can't sail into the wind and you can't sail without the wind"
There is a map to go with the rest of the post. I highly recommend switching to the satellite view because for some reason the map view has the geography all wrong and it looks like our path goes over land and looks like we took a huge detour we didn't have to.
If you look on the map (at least til they update the satellite images), you can see the boat sitting on the beach!
The plan was that Georges and I would sail the boat around Monomoy to Harwichport and be home around 8. We left Pleasant Bay around 3:30 and had a nice cruise out of the bay, along the outer beach, by Chatham Lighthouse where Noney and Maman were waving, but we didn't see them. My mom took one of the cars and the boys took the other. The wind was out of the northwest and the tide was with us, so we were hauling. We came out into the Atlantic, which had noticeably colder water and wind and continued making what seemed like pretty good time until we turned around and saw that Chatham was not too far behind us. We were making about 7 knots on the wind but the currents weren't helping.
We finally got to this point around 6:30 when we had crossed a rip current (place where two different water or wind currents knock into each other) where the wind was shifting to a south wind. So we kept trying to tack our way closer to Monomoy Point, to no avail. The currents in Butler Hole (the area right off Monomoy) are crazy. We tried to flag down a motor boat for a tow, but either they didn't see us or didn't want to stop. We got to shore, undid the jib sheet, tied it to the end of the main halyard to create a rope long enough to reach shore keeping the boat just off the breaking waves. The Atlantic coast of Monomoy is super steep and has all these sharp rocks (and a ton of adorable seals). Georges went ashore with the end of the rope while I stayed on the boat, attempting to steer us off shore while he pulled us along.
We finally managed to flag down the Captain Kate out of Chatham who gave us a tow out and down close to the point and a second tow back to shore since the wind had died. She offered to call the harbormaster, but said she couldn't bring us any farther because she had to get back before dark because she didn't have any lights. We declined the call to the harbormaster...
Georges walked us the rest of the way around the point. The jib sheet block (set of pulleys for the rope that pull the small sail in) dropped into the water since the sheet (the rope) wasn't attached and it had been banging against the mast. Fortunately, that's not a totally essential part of the boat. Right as we were rounding the point, the boat started taking off and Georges had to pull the boat back to get on it. It's amazing how much faster you go with the wind and tide behind you... We finally rounded the point around 8:30 after the sun had mostly set.
We then began our nighttime adventure. It's hard to know exactly where you are when you're that far out, it's 50 times harder at night. We headed towards the two red lighted towers (turns out they were the wrong ones, but at least we were headed north). Then the damn wind shifted to a northwest wind so we had to head off towards Chatham and tack our way back along the shore. There's a bell buoy out in the sound, but there's no light on top of it (bad design decision) so we did the best we could to figure out where we were in relation to that. But, we had cell phone reception amazingly enough, so we were able to get a few GPS reads (wait, we're in the middle of Nantucket Sound? no way!) and we were able to call my mom who drove her car around to a couple of beaches (Pilgrim Road and Red River Beach) and flash her lights so we could figure out where we were in relation to everything on shore. Turns out the club at Wychmere has crazy bright sodium lights that you can see from all the way out in the middle of the sound. Spencer hung a lantern from one of our other boats on shore and the boys ran around with flashlights when we got closer. That last hour was really hard. My right arm was killing me from holding the tiller trying to keep us off shore of Monomoy and I was pretty hungry since all I'd eaten was a handful of grapes and a turkey sandwich. The wind totally died and Georges had to paddle us in the last couple hundred feet. We beached the boat around midnight, unrigged it, and headed home for some food.
Our average speed was about 4.2 knots (2.1 mph). From my Google map calculations, it looks like we sailed about 41 miles total and we did it in about 8.5 hours. Sailing at night was beautiful with all the stars, no one else on the water, and about 4 firework displays on shore. The acoustics work really strangely out there since we couldn't hear the bell buoy most of the time but we could hear sirens and trucks on land and even hear people's conversations on the beach when we were pretty close to shore. But since the wind was from the north, no one could hear us. We saw a seal in the dark whose nose I thought was a shark fin and we hit a sandbar down by Chatham / Red Red River Beach which was slightly unnerving for a second. But other than that, a good sail.
I woke up at 6 this morning and ate a leftover potato and drank 6 glasses of water before going to bed for another 4 hours. I'm pretty sore all over and have one strip of sunburn along my lower back, right above my bathing suit line and right below my t-shirt. Georges' feet are shredded from the rocks, but other than that, we and the boat (minus a jib sheet block) are in pretty good condition. Reminders to self: stay super hydrated (and well-fed) when on a boat for 9 hours and remember to sunblock your lower back while working on a boat in the hot July sun for 4 hours.
So I haven't built a wooden dinghy yet, but I did help fix up a catamaran. My uncle Georges bought an old one of these for $100, a new (used, whenever I say "new" I mean "different than the ones that came with the boat") rudder and some other pieces for $60, a new set of sails for $100 (the ones that came with the boat had been chewed through by mice and would have been insanely expensive to repair), and various other parts (epoxy, clips, blocks, etc.) for $100. That's a decently working boat for $360. Not bad at all.
Wednesday, Georges bought the boat and he and Spencer did a once over and got the new rudder and a tiller and couple other things. Thursday, we went over the boat a couple times and tried rigging it, quickly realizing that we needed a new jib halyard, a new jib sheet, a new jib halyard pulley, a new jib sheet block, some WD-40, some silicone spray, and various circlips, horseshoe clips, lobster claw clips, pins, rivets (and a riveter), and bolts. The boys fixed up the rudder and tiller that night. Friday, Georges finally got another set of sails.
Saturday, I had a handful of grapes for breakfast (this is important later, I swear). We left for around 10, stopped for a few last minute things (epoxy, fiberglass cloth, the new jib halyard, etc.) and headed for the boat. Georges and I patched up the left pontoon, drilled out the rivets in the old jib pulley, replaced the jib sheet block, rigged the new jib sheet until my mom arrived on her bike. We ate the sandwiches we'd packed, and then realized we needed more fiberglass cloth and the riveter! Spencer drove down with Tommy while my mom went biking some more (she's training for a century). We fixed the right pontoon and riveted the jib halyard pulley, fixed the batons in the sails (we're missing a few), rigged the new jib halyard and then rigged the boat!
Spencer, Tommy, Georges and I did a shake-down cruise around the harbor, we let Georges off to go get some last minute thing (a new bolt for the main sheet block), and the boys and I went on a quick half hour sail and landed right as Georges got back.
Before we continue, a crash course in sailing. You need wind to sail. The currents in the water can push your boat and you and the boat go with them. You cannot sail straight into the wind, you just end up going backwards. The wind can change directions during the day. When I say a north wind, I mean the wind is blowing from the north to the south.
(IT GETS INTERESTING HERE!)
tl;dr from above - we bought a boat and fixed it up and now we're about to sail it home, sailing is "you can't sail into the wind and you can't sail without the wind"
There is a map to go with the rest of the post. I highly recommend switching to the satellite view because for some reason the map view has the geography all wrong and it looks like our path goes over land and looks like we took a huge detour we didn't have to.
If you look on the map (at least til they update the satellite images), you can see the boat sitting on the beach!
The plan was that Georges and I would sail the boat around Monomoy to Harwichport and be home around 8. We left Pleasant Bay around 3:30 and had a nice cruise out of the bay, along the outer beach, by Chatham Lighthouse where Noney and Maman were waving, but we didn't see them. My mom took one of the cars and the boys took the other. The wind was out of the northwest and the tide was with us, so we were hauling. We came out into the Atlantic, which had noticeably colder water and wind and continued making what seemed like pretty good time until we turned around and saw that Chatham was not too far behind us. We were making about 7 knots on the wind but the currents weren't helping.
We finally got to this point around 6:30 when we had crossed a rip current (place where two different water or wind currents knock into each other) where the wind was shifting to a south wind. So we kept trying to tack our way closer to Monomoy Point, to no avail. The currents in Butler Hole (the area right off Monomoy) are crazy. We tried to flag down a motor boat for a tow, but either they didn't see us or didn't want to stop. We got to shore, undid the jib sheet, tied it to the end of the main halyard to create a rope long enough to reach shore keeping the boat just off the breaking waves. The Atlantic coast of Monomoy is super steep and has all these sharp rocks (and a ton of adorable seals). Georges went ashore with the end of the rope while I stayed on the boat, attempting to steer us off shore while he pulled us along.
We finally managed to flag down the Captain Kate out of Chatham who gave us a tow out and down close to the point and a second tow back to shore since the wind had died. She offered to call the harbormaster, but said she couldn't bring us any farther because she had to get back before dark because she didn't have any lights. We declined the call to the harbormaster...
Georges walked us the rest of the way around the point. The jib sheet block (set of pulleys for the rope that pull the small sail in) dropped into the water since the sheet (the rope) wasn't attached and it had been banging against the mast. Fortunately, that's not a totally essential part of the boat. Right as we were rounding the point, the boat started taking off and Georges had to pull the boat back to get on it. It's amazing how much faster you go with the wind and tide behind you... We finally rounded the point around 8:30 after the sun had mostly set.
We then began our nighttime adventure. It's hard to know exactly where you are when you're that far out, it's 50 times harder at night. We headed towards the two red lighted towers (turns out they were the wrong ones, but at least we were headed north). Then the damn wind shifted to a northwest wind so we had to head off towards Chatham and tack our way back along the shore. There's a bell buoy out in the sound, but there's no light on top of it (bad design decision) so we did the best we could to figure out where we were in relation to that. But, we had cell phone reception amazingly enough, so we were able to get a few GPS reads (wait, we're in the middle of Nantucket Sound? no way!) and we were able to call my mom who drove her car around to a couple of beaches (Pilgrim Road and Red River Beach) and flash her lights so we could figure out where we were in relation to everything on shore. Turns out the club at Wychmere has crazy bright sodium lights that you can see from all the way out in the middle of the sound. Spencer hung a lantern from one of our other boats on shore and the boys ran around with flashlights when we got closer. That last hour was really hard. My right arm was killing me from holding the tiller trying to keep us off shore of Monomoy and I was pretty hungry since all I'd eaten was a handful of grapes and a turkey sandwich. The wind totally died and Georges had to paddle us in the last couple hundred feet. We beached the boat around midnight, unrigged it, and headed home for some food.
Our average speed was about 4.2 knots (2.1 mph). From my Google map calculations, it looks like we sailed about 41 miles total and we did it in about 8.5 hours. Sailing at night was beautiful with all the stars, no one else on the water, and about 4 firework displays on shore. The acoustics work really strangely out there since we couldn't hear the bell buoy most of the time but we could hear sirens and trucks on land and even hear people's conversations on the beach when we were pretty close to shore. But since the wind was from the north, no one could hear us. We saw a seal in the dark whose nose I thought was a shark fin and we hit a sandbar down by Chatham / Red Red River Beach which was slightly unnerving for a second. But other than that, a good sail.
I woke up at 6 this morning and ate a leftover potato and drank 6 glasses of water before going to bed for another 4 hours. I'm pretty sore all over and have one strip of sunburn along my lower back, right above my bathing suit line and right below my t-shirt. Georges' feet are shredded from the rocks, but other than that, we and the boat (minus a jib sheet block) are in pretty good condition. Reminders to self: stay super hydrated (and well-fed) when on a boat for 9 hours and remember to sunblock your lower back while working on a boat in the hot July sun for 4 hours.