dudes remember me?

[thesailerdude]

I don't think you guys remember me but...back in april or may i brought up about me and my college dudes sailing the Caribbean waters with zero experience...caused quite of a stir i believe!

Well..we didn't exactly reach the Caribbean islands..but what an adventure!

We left Middle River, MD (northern Baltimore) on a $2,250 dollars sailboat we just decided to buy without asking any questions (hell the engine started! what else there were to ask!?!?) ...on a sturdy 1977 CAL 27 with a 12 hp farymann diesel (nightmare!)

Well what can I say? We cruised through the Intracoastal waterway..didn't go offshore because we didn't know when the time was to right to exit the ICW and which inlet to get back in it...sounded like a lot of hassle..so we stayed on ICW

Sure we sailed often on the trip..some places are breathtakingly beautiful...North Carolina and South Carolina especially! My favorite part of the ICW was the Waccamaw River, SC..yeah go ahead and google it up!

The trip from Baltimore MD to West Palm Beach, FL took us a good month including a week stay in Charleston, SC. So many things happened (especially with the engine) but I am forever grateful for the sailing community. I never felt so embraced by a community that took us in willingly and such open arms...countless sailors helped us with our engine, gave us money (even though we tried to turn the offer down but to no avail) gave us food, and above all, advices.

So this is essentially my way of saying thank you guys. Thank you. In a way I am hoping to remind you guys to uphold the sacred code of the sailors- help others out when in distress.

Don't forget to take risks...5 college dudes on a 27 sailboat with virtually zero sailing experience lasted for over 1k miles and returns home with plenty of stories to tell

Go with your dreams

 

[higgs]

A life long memory. Glad it worked out.

 

[Scott]

Congrats - aw, to be young and fearless again!!

 

[sailaway78]

I Can Remember

I remember those days, long ago, when I also was ten feet tall and bullet proof. Didn't know enough to not try things that sounded like fun. Good on all of ya. And you are correct about the sailing community. Lots of really nice folks.

 

[Ron20324]

Soon to be a TV mini-series no doubt- but a comedy or drama???

 

[Bob S]

Glad you made it home safely, I hope you can take the time to post some stories!:dance:

 

[gfrazzle]

Sailor? Dudes

I'm sure that your families and the USCG are glad you are back!

 

[TimCup]

DUDE!! Welcome back!

I was one of those guys that said "no way, Jose" to you guys going to the islands. Glad to hear you had fun!

If, during your monthlong trip, you didn't feel confident leaving the ditch for open water, forgetting about the Bahamas was probably the right choice. As you found out, there's plenty to enjoy here in the good ol' USA. Sorry to hear about your engine issues, but it sounds like one of you five needs to become a diesel expert- they're simple engines, other than the fact you need 12 inch fingers with plier strength to actually fix'em!

Of course, the engine guy sails free- and worth every penny, as you found out---- welcome back to the forum.

cup

 

[HukilauMike]

Great stuff.

Reminds me of an incident that happened several years ago at my marina. I was coming back from an evening sail, and I met four college age guys at my dock. They were working on an Oday 22 that had not been launched that spring with the rest of us. The boys told me that they boat the boat for $400 from the PO (who had relocated for work). The engine alone (a new four stroke Honda) was worth three times that amount. The boys asked/stated "We can sail from here to Newport (RI) in one day, right?" Since Newport was a looooong two day sail from there in a small boat under the best of conditions, I was kind of surprised at the question. After some more talk, it became apparent to me that at least three of the four had no idea what they were doing, and the fourth was talking a good game that he didn't seem to believe himself. I proceeded to help them set up their boat; they had no idea how to tune the rig, they had the boom vang set up as the main sheet, no food, no water, no charts and no idea how much gas they could ship. They intended to make Newport in a day no matter what, motoring if the wind died. When I showed them they only had a three gallon tank, they were surprised. To make a long story at least a little shorter, I convinced them to invest in another gas tank and charts before they left (they had to leave the next morning to avoid dock charges).

I later found out through this very website that the boys survived; I don't know if they made Newport, but the next owner of that boat related how he bought her from the boys, and she was filled with empty beer and liquor bottles.

Anyway, glad you too survived to tell. I would love to see some stories.

 

[Benny]

It seems that you have learned first hand what we were trying to tell you about. You are now experienced sailors in the ICW. May this motivate you to continue the learning curve to many more adventures.

 

[BobM]

Glad to hear you all survived and enjoyed the trip, but do not confuse this Tom Sawyer-eque experience with reality. You will have to forgive us the fact that time has worn some of the edges off us. Our reality is that if we took our Wife and kids (not a bunch of college dudes) on a 27 footer in ill repair with an abject lack of experience and planning on a 1000 mile lark like that 99 out of 100 Wives would make us wish we hadn't been born before we left the dock.

The knowledge of such repercussions and avoidance of same is a survival trait among Husbands, even though we do have fond memories of all the stupid stuff WE did when we were in college.

Glad you had fun and were safe.

Bob

 

[Hermit Scott]

I love it. tell us some stories.

 

[Stu Jackson]

...even though we do have fond memories of all the stupid stuff WE did when we were in college.

Why limit it to college? :dance:

 

[BobM]

I stand corrected...

Why limit it to college? :dance:

Stu is correct...there is no limitation on WHEN we did stupid stuff...we just didn't worry so much about surviving it without the benefit of experience.

 

[LANCE ON CLOUD NINE]

bring on the pictures dude!

 

[thesailerdude]

my countrymen, lend me your ears

Man I have missed you guys..your incessant warnings are even welcome here!

Well I have a story here along with pictures..(will post them later)

We was running out of fuel and were having some problems with our stuffing box...so we decided to look for a marina to refuel and possibly try to get equipment that were necessary to fix that goddamned leaking problem that are absolutely destroying our bilge blower (as we had to empty it every hour) We were nearing Charleston, SC...we didn't realize it as we decided to go out of our way a little bit to James Island...on a side note at the time i was obsessively addicted reading Ken Follett's masterpiece- "The Pillars of the Earth." If you haven't read it yet..go and buy one! perfect book to read while on a sailing trip. Anyway back to the point..to our aghast the marina was an elementary one...still very much under construction (marina's name I forget) So we took advantage of their newly built facilities which included a luxury we don't get often...a hot shower. It was freezing out so we immediately went out and cajoled, begged, used our puppy eyes to receive the keys for the hot shower..in which we succeed after a while. It took a while but five of us was refreshed, refueled...our stuffing box problem still remained but we planned to take the boat to Charleston and solve it there....we got on the boat and were ready to leave...then...one of the crew member decided that he needed to get a gatorade to "further" refresh himself...everyone including myself went below deck...our captain and another crewman was sleeping. Another member was doing whatever god knows with that magazine. I was reading Follett's masterpiece..actually I was so engrossed until i felt a strange sensation that...we were not docked anymore. I immediately put it down and checked what's up...I found that the fifth crew member who "desperately" needed his gatorade had pulled all of the docklines in and pushed the boat off the docks...To my horror..He didn't start the engine before doing so..I yelled at him asking why didnt he start it??? He calmly replied.."Relax! I will start it soon" by then current was pushing us down the middle of the river..the gatorade boy then pressed the starter..and guess what? NOTHING! absolutely nothing! So we were drifting in the middle of a swift moving river without any means to get back to the docks. I quickly alerted the rest of members..including that captain who likes to display his ass crack when he sleeps....we tried to start the engine again...again....again..to no avail. We tried different methods..turning off the battery and back on. We decided we could try to furl our Jib in vain hope of reaching the docks (it was windy that day) but to no avail as the wind swirled around us in cross sections..we drifted uselessly.....until...BAM we ran aground near the weeds area...I was so pissed at the Gatorade boy and his amateurish mistake. I was so mad... that I decided to do nothing and simply...read Ken Follett and escape the cursed world I was currently living in..(one should be noted that it was not the first time we ****ed up...so it had gotten to a point of no return) The rest of members were equally listless...we did absolutely nothing for the next 15 mins as the we got even more deeply entrenched with the current pushing us against the sand...then our captain realized that at the MOMENT it was at the HIGH tide...we scrambled to do something because...well if it had went back to the low tide...I believe that the water will go so low that the boat will tip over....we jumped off board and tried to push the boat valiantly away from the shore and into deeper water..but alas! the keel was too deeeeply entrenched...we deliberated what to do....and decided we had to call the Boat US...we were not even members so that means $$$$$$$$$ the morale was at the all time low...as we waited for the boat us to come....I FELT THE SAME SENSATION i had before...we were floating! we were not aground anymore! Then at the moment...boat us guy arrived (we were using credit card...they already took 250 bucks for initial fee) We clamored that we didnt need boat us anymore and tried to explain that tide got us out..but the man blatantly refused and adamantly towed us back to the same marina where we left 1 hr ago...it now began raining profusely...these kind of hard piling rain that keeps coming at you...when we finally docked..in mishandling the mainsail in the rain...we tore a sizable gash into the middle of it....EPIC FAIL...THE GATORADE RENAISSANCE boy cost us (boat us, torn mainsail, taxi transportation from the tiny island, paying a mechanic to come and see what is up with the starter) a grand total of more than 1 thousand dollars....it turns out...the spark plug for the starter was not plugged..how did it get unplugged? i do not know

But one thing we laughed about later was that why didnt the hell we drop the anchor when we were free-floating???

I hope you enjoy the story....I got plenty more

 

[Sumner]

Great story and Ruth and I would like to hear more. Puts some of our mistakes into perspective. We don't have any thousand dollar ones yet, but I'm still in pain from the last one a couple months ago now.

So what are you waiting for, get typing,

Sum and Ruth

Our Trips to Lake Powell, UT - Kootenay Lake, Canada - Priest Lake, ID

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

 

[Doug Arey]

I see that it has been almost a year since anyone posted to this topic, but I was amuzed by the topic and decided to read all of the postings.
I/we have a somewhat similar story, though I can't claim youth as the excuse for my poor judgement the way that SailorDude could.
I'd sailed before, but only on lakes. When we bought our 30' S-2, it was already at the ocean, so we decided to become ocean sailors. With only about 2 months experience with our new/used boat, we decided to sail to Maine (from Southern Massachusetts). It was a fantgastic trip, though frought from the first day with mechanical problems. The first "issues" was with the altenator, and in the middle of our first overnight passage we lost all ability to charge the batteries soe that we cold operate our navigation lights and GPS. We drifted into Gloucester harbor under sail at about 5:00 AM, and looked for help. No marina was able to match the altenator on our 20-year-old Volvo engine, but we cleaverly decided to ask instead at an autoparts store. Turns out our alternator was very similar to ones on Nissan cars, and with a slight modification we were up and ready to continue on the Maine.
We had a great time cruising all the up to Penobscot Bay, dealing with thick fog (never had fog like that on lake Champlain!), and three trillion lobster bouys. But we made it just fine, and had a fantastic adventure.
Until the return trip.
Never having owned a diesel engine before we had no way of knowing that thick, black soot on the transom might indicate serious problems. We were smart enough to have asked the owner of the marina that we moored her at about it soon after we bought her, though, and were told that it was normal. And he followed up by telling us "hey, it's a sailboat! You shouldn't be using your engine anyway!") Well, turns out it was a big problem. Being as consciencious as we knew enough to be at the time, we checked the engine oil regularly. It seemed a bit strange that the oil level seemed, if anything, to be increasing as our trip progressed. But we didn't make too mjuch of that fact. We soon learned, the engine oil level was going up instead of the direction one might otherwise expect was because the diesel fuel was blowing by the old, worn out cylinders, and infiltrating the engine oil. Needless to say, we had to cut our trip short and leave the boat at a (really wonderful, amazingly accomodating) marina in East Boothbay, Maine, to be repowered. $10,000 and almost three weeks later, we were able to finally complete our journey.
We realize, now that we've had 8 years more experience, how foolish it was of us to undertake such an ambitious trip with almost no serious sailing experience and on a boat we had no familiarity with. But we have no regrets (other than wishing we'd gotten a better survey done on the boat before we bought her).
Now we're about to do essentially the same thing all over again. We just bought a boat that is on Lake Huron, and with no expereince or familiarity with this new/used boat (which is a significant upgrade from our 30 footer!), we plan to sail her through the Great Lakes (which we have no familiarity with) and then the St. Lawrence Seaway (again, no experience there either) and around Nova Scotia starting this spring.
Wish us luck!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Doug,

At least you have enough time this time to do a real shakedown cruise in home waters and check the boat out.

We bought our C34 in July of 1998. It took me 8 years to get it into "just sail her and clean her" shape. It was a pristine boat when we bought it, but there's always something to repair or something to improve upon.

The success of any voyage is the intimate knowledge of the platform you are using.

New waterways are the fun of the trip, so that's not the issue, or else we'd all be sailing around in the same circles within 5 miles of our home marinas and never go anywhere.

My confidence in my little ship is gained by repetitive use and understanding of what's working and keeping up with the required maintenance.

Enjoy your new journey.

 

[Doug Arey]

Thanks Stu!