Wing on Wing- Fort Freemont Reach

Sunday April the 15^th 2012

 Today was a fantastic day. We plan on putting the First 25 miles under her keel. We are doing a run out to the mouth of the ocean. The run is known locally at the Fort Freemont reach. In fact if you look at the chart that’s what they call the area. Jim the co-Owner of the Lady and “captain extraordinaire” his Daughter and her friend came with us for the day. They were a great help. I completely enjoyed them being with us. The weather called for a stiff wind of 12 to 17 miles per hour straight out of the south. I would say the hit it right on the head. It was very windy. Our plan was to ride the out going tide to the Nun-buoy # 29 using the motor. We were headed south and that put the wind right over our bow rail. No sailing in chains as they say. It took around 2 hours of motoring south to reach the buoy 29. When we got there the wind was stronger than expected we had a 2 mile wide area and decided to hank up the main and try to practice beating up wind. Captain Jim was at the helm. The wind proved too much of an adversary on that tact so we headed back north form wince we came.

            We got very comfortable on this Jibe tact. We had to be carful not to swing the boom to hard. The wind was from our backside now and at 15 to 17 miles per hour.

This is one of the most dangerous positions to have a sailboat.  We were making great time. So we decided to hank up the jib. After a few minutes, I took the helm. We had a total of three accidental jibs. They were very hard on the main sail. By the end of the last uncontrolled jib we had broke all but 3 of the bolt slugs off the main sail and will need repair.

This was Jim and my first time sailing this boat full out. The C&C 30 Is a great sailing boat. The acceleration is just awesome. She turns on a dime. I took a great opportunity and went wing on wing. It was like being in heaven. I only wish I had some photos of what she looked like from the bank. Very impressive, I bet. I use to sit on the shore and watch the sailboats on the weekend and think how much fun it must be. I remember how beautiful they wood look when they spread there wings out and fly like an angle, skipping across the ocean like.

            The 12 mile back under sail took no time. We were able to maintain a full wing on wing almost the whole way. The bringing in the sails is were thing started to go wrong.

I was at the helm and Jim had already brought the Jib was bringing down the main. I turned into the wind to give some relief to the tension on the sail. That flopping the main was doing was violent. It was popping our plastic Mast slugs off like they were,         “well plastic”. I was trying to maneuver the boat to the mooring ball. The waves were very choppy with whitecaps, the wind was relentless and the tide was at 4 to 6 knots. Very rough to try and hook a mooring. I had my 16 footer hooked there on the ball. I got us real close at one point. I hooped off the sail boat onto my Mckee craft to try to secure us to the mooring. I fought it for several minuets when I realized I could not secure it. The tide was too strong. So I decided to hop back onto the sailboat. As I jumped up my foot hung on something? It ripped a 6 to 7 inch gash, deep into the top on my foot.  I had plenty of room to jump onto the sailboat if I wouldn’t have hung my foot. Tat stopped my momentum. At this point I was struggling to get on. I have fallen in up to my waist at this point and then swung one leg at a time onto the tow rail of the Sailboat. That’s when we saw the blood. I knew I was cut badly. We changed our plan and Headed to the Beaufort downtown marina for dockage and a visit to the doctor.

When I got to the marina, On the outer leg of the Tee dock there was maybe 70 feet of space that was not taken. I was at the helm as Jim has never been so close to a dock as the pilot before. O.K me either. I was scared and hurt. The current was ripping. I had a $350.000.00 boat down stream and a million dollar yacht up stream.  I got close headed with the current and at the last minute, I cut hard to port and Throttled up with all she had. I swung her right into the space. It scared the life out of me. Very exciting stuff.

            We learned a great deal this day of sailing. I could list them out but I will not bore you. Thanks to Jill and Claire what a great time we had. You guys need to come back and we will do it again, hopefully with a lot less drama. Jill, thank you so much for helping me to the car. You are very sweet.

See ya on the Breeze.