A Three Hour Tour...

[xsavvyx]

(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)

Comments

[bubblingbeebles]

awesome! did you plan out your general route in advance, or wander around randomly?

(what are these jib things? i can only imagine you were sailing a bouldering wall around in the water.)

[xsavvyx]

When you have a boat longer than about 10 feet (and sometimes on smaller boats), you have a second smaller sail in front of the main sail, called a jib (see Chris's link). We had planned our route out before hand, but the water levels change so often around Monomoy (since it's basically a glorified sand bar) that we were hoping to find a break in the island that would let us across. Until about 5 years ago, there were a North and South Monomoy Island and neither was connected to Chatham. But they're connected now! The other option was to push the boat across the island at the narrowest point, but as I mentioned in the post, the beach is really steep and the boat probably weighs 350 pounds, so that didn't work out...

[bubblingbeebles]

ahh. also you (er, the map, i guess) said Georges walked the boat around the point? that looks painfully far to push 350 pounds.

[xsavvyx]

Georges walked on shore with a line tied to the bow. The boat (with me on it) stayed in the water and Georges walked along shore. It's actually very easy to pull a boat through water. Sorry if the map indicated that the boat was on shore...

[xsavvyx]

Yeah, I love sailing. I wish the rivers in Pittsburgh had more wind...

[danibel]

Wow, what an adventure! I wish I knew how to sail. I'm glad you both made it back safely.

[xsavvyx]

Thanks! I can teach you to sail sometime if you come visit me on the Cape!