This week’s sail was a four day trip over labor day weekend with light airs the first two days and a fair headwind on the third, followed by rain and motoring on the return trip to Bellingham. The group of guests was quite diverse and fun. They included various middle aged couples, a bachelor party of five guys and lots of scotch, a younger married couple (which is atypical of a trip like this) who were very cool, and a cute twenty something red head who was offered the free trip to tag along with her parents. Oh, and a grandfather brought his granddaughter and her best friend. Coincidentally, the two girls rode my tube hill at MTB last winter and I remember having a conversation with the grandpa while standing in the snow.
This time of year brings crisp air in the evenings, which makes for great stargazing. Each clear night I am on deck with my little star book and my green laser pointer trying to navigate my way around the heavens. Total geek out, I know. And each night I can’t help but chuckle when I think of the other little boats sharing our anchorage who are looking over at a 160 (sparred) foot schooner with a lightsaber aboard. For added flare, I can wave it furiously about the rigging to put on a laser show for the guests. The bachelor party inevitably started singing a Pink Floyd medley.
And speaking of medlies, I was on The Adventuress for two full summers and left there feeling like I know a good deal about sailing a tall ship schooner. I have now been on the Z for a total of about a month and I feel I don’t know jack about tar. Funny how such a similar rig between the two can be handled so differently. For instance, when on helm on The A, the captain is pretty much always there to keep you on course. For the most part, they tell you where to go, you just turn the wheel and are not left much to your own devices. If you turn to far, as ships this size are slow to react which makes over steering easy, the captain tells you, "three spokes to the right”, or something like that. On the Z, the Captain barely even touches the helm. He tells you the course and leaves it all up to you. Which is great in the grand scheme of things. What a great learning opportunity! However, it is also coupled with a full compliment of anxiety and a racing mind to recollect everything you have ever learned about wind, current, navigation, ship handling….etc. And you don’t have much time to get comfy, for when that watch bell rings you have a guest ready to take the helm and you are now responsible for telling them how to steer her. The learning curve can be pretty big at times.
On the return trip, Labor Day, every boat in the islands was heading back to the main land. The water was packed with boats, boats everywhere. The captain gave me our heading and I was to be telling a guest what to do. We were rounding a point, coming up on another busy channel with a major ferry port, and there was a ripping flood current. The guest at the wheel had handled such a ship in his life now for about 5 minutes. He was spinning the wheel left and right, still getting a feel for her slow responsiveness, (me too!) But we had boats overtaking us, we were overtaking boats, boats were crossing us, we were crossing boats and putting them under our stern. Left, right, left again. Shit! We altered course to avoid boats, now we are off our heading. Captain says, “hey, get back on your heading”. We realign. The guy over corrects. There is a boat in the way. I take the helm and try to get us lined out. I do so and then the captain pulls me aside and tells me to try not to take the helm from the guy. He says, “ little old ladies are one thing, but guys tend to get their feelings hurt”. Which is true, and I was trying to be aware of that even as I did so, but c’mon, boats were everywhere! Then I hear the three bells. Great! Watch change! I am outta here. But wait, the new crew member who was to take the deck from me was napping in his bunk. I end up staying on helm for another hour and the rain is really pouring now. But by this time the guests are all pretty over it and have all gone below. So now I have the helm all to myself. And I got to take it through a couple passages all by myself! Yeah, the captain redirected me a couple times, but I came away feeling better about how she handles and just how much he expects of me when at the helm.
It is now Tuesday night. I am on anchor watch. We dropped the hook in Echo Bay, Sucia Island. We have 8 guests on board this very undersold trip. It should be a good trip. Lots of new learning crew, and we need to be drilled a lot this week in maneuvers so we are ready for the Schooner race at the wooden boat festival in Port Townsend this weekend, for which I am very excited!
Lastly, Cloud Cult is playing Seattle in ten days! I am really excited to see them again. (and that cute twenty something red head)
0230 and all is well.
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