Sailing triathelon

[Mike]

Too much work and too little sailing this spring. Saturday got out for about 6 glorious hours. Sunday I should have been in the office but after Saturday I just couldn't. Forecast winds at 10-15. Off we go. First BIG black coulds are rolling in. Don't care wanna sail. Then lightning. Now I care more. I'll hug the bank and hope the trees are taller. Its certainly gonna pass as I can see lighter skies in the distance. Then the main traveler car blew into several smaller than intended pieces. Just old age I suspect but the deck is now peppered with very small ballbearings and the main sheet is considerably slack. Dont' care, I wanna sail. cleat off the main to the windward jib cleat. Ah sailing. Then the wind quit.  My boat lives on a mooring. I don't use the engine too much. I only go out when its blowing and sail on and off the mooring. Sure hope that outboard works. Fire up the outboard after it appears the wind will not be coming back to play. Engine starts and runs. I begin to drop sails. Then engine dies. Pull start. Starts runs, then dies. Pull start, runs pump bulb by hand continues to run. Bad fuel filter etc. Don't care. If I squeeze it runs. I can squeeze. I'm about 300 yards from the mooring near club. See buddy in his sailing dingy becalmed. Motor near, cut back throttle stand and move towards his side of the baot to ask if he wants a tow (he has no engine). He says no he'll float and see if wind comes back. RPMs drop I reach for bulb. Too late engine dies. I pull, rope breaks. Engine does not start, no pull. I drift to visitors dock 20 yards away and tie up.  I'll just get the dingy and row-tow my boat to the mooring. (O'day 25, I've never towed witht he dingy but I suspect it wouldn't be so bad.) I can use the exercise. Of course the dingy is on the mooring so first I'll have to swim to it. Well first I have to walk to that end of the club. I do. Breeze threatens, then dies. I swim. I'm big. Dingy is small. I do a pull up on transom. Water and I flow over it. (I can just see it sinking out from under me as I sit lotus position on top of mooring bouy) I row to the boat. Wind is back. Sail towing dingy back to mooring. Buddy in Dingy THEN says, oh its a Johnson. Its got the notch that allows you to attach a line and pull. I suspect he just wanted to see me swim to the dingy.Still better than the office.Mike

 

[Dave]

Great story

Mike,A very entertaining account of your adventures. We all have these little misadventures, although most of us don't string as many of them together in one trip. Here's one I had. On a recent trip to Door County, I actually bumped into a channel marker while becalmed (motor had died temporarily). This thing was probably 6-7 feet above the water, and bright red. My son (always the quick wit) commented that it should be impossible to hit a channel marker (on the wrong side of it I might add) when you are traveling at less than 1 MPH. I pointed out to him that neither he, nor my father who was the other crew member had seen it either. "Your the captain" was his response. He also pointed out that it was "clearly marked on the GPS". In any case, we had a good laugh about it later. In addition, a ferry full of cars and passengers was in the vicinity, so everyone got to share in the spectacle. Thanks for sharing your story.Dave