Season 2 Recap

15 December 2015

The season came to a close all too soon, and I neglected to post updates.  Now it is the middle of December, a clear day in the lower sixties, amid an unusually mild autumn for New England.  Many around these parts have been feeling a bit apprehensive as winter approaches, still nursing wounds from last year's record-breaking blizzards.  We have enjoyed many warm and pleasant days this Fall, although today a NWS advisory is posted across most of southern New England: winds west, 20-30 mph, gusting 50, strongest 1200-1600 hours.  Out on the water, near Abel's Ledge at the head of Buzzards Bay and the western approach to Cape Cod Canal, my 'PredictWind' app forecasts winds 19-22 knots, gusting 29-32kts, with 4-foot waves at 5 second intervals -- what I call a real "Yee-Ha" day for little Piao.

Piao on her mooring, after an autumn sail in late October

This year, Piao logged a five-month (24-week) season: splashing in on 23 May, and hauling out on 7 November.  Her 28 voyages covered a little over 300 nautical miles (10 voyages, 100-plus nm single-handed).  She spent over 135 hours underway (and another 50 hours at anchor), with about 20 hours (15%) under power with the Mercury 9.9hp outboard motor.  That was less than half the engine time of Season One, but still much more than I would like.  Going forward, I will make a much better effort to be more diligent about recording engine hours (and other items) in my logbook.

Shortest voyage of the 2015 season: 10 June

(picked up the Admiral at the dock, and returned to the mooring, where we sat and chilled all afternoon)

With the season now behind me, I sit at my desk feeling wistful and regretting that I did not find more time to be out on the boat, although I think the Admiral would say that I was out there a plenty.  In her first season, Piao logged nearly twice as many voyages.  Yet, to be fair, I have been putting in more time on the water, 'messing around in boats' other than Piao.  Once again, we only took out our 14' tandem kayak, Tiffany-May for only a single day of paddling (sadly, that makes two years in a row when we used it only once).  But we have done a good deal of whaleboat racing with our team ("Polar Oartex") at Whaling City Rowing -- winning several competitions, including the annual Snow Row (March), Buzzards Bay Open Water Challenge (June), Minots Light Roundabout (September), Slocum River Challenge Regatta (September), and the Mass Bay Open Water Challenge (October), along with a second-place finish at the New Bedford Working Waterfront Whaleboat World Championships.  

"Polar Oartex" pulls into the lead during the 2015 Snow Row in Hull, MA

Nantucket Sleigh Ride!

Our whaleboat being hauled back to the marina after a race, compliments of TowBoatUS

WCR also participated in the festivities surrounding the visit of the barque NRR Sagres to New Bedford, rowing out to welcome her and to see her off upon departure.  The Admiral rows Oar #4 (Port Aft) on the "Oartex" team, under the moniker "Seawolf."  While I will row with alacrity at any oar, and often was assigned to Stroke (#5) Oar, I have been coxswain and boat-steerer for the "Oartex" competitions.  The team nicknamed me, "Bucket Bastard," because I make them train pulling a five-gallon bucket behind the whaleboat.

 Rowing out to welcome the arrival of NRP Sagres

Rowing around barque Picton Castle during her visit to New Bedford

I left the Admiral ashore and had a couple of more extended stints aboard larger vessels.  My friend Bob graciously invited me to crew for him, along with Dan, a young sailor of a Cape Dory 30 with off-shore experience, as he took S/V Argon on an overnight trip from Boston to Newport, where the Tartan 4000 was to be for the annual international boat show.  I went to high school with Bob, back in upstate New York; we reconnected some years ago through Facebook, and discovered we both were living in the Boston area.  Bob introduced me to two of the most rewarding life-changing experiences: sailing and eHarmony.  He and Linda are now full-time live-aboards on Argon, and are preparing for a trip to Bermuda next year (in fact, Bob just made the trip as crew on another boat).  They have a great blog for Argon (here).  Our leg out of Boston was exciting for me, with E/NE winds blowing across the fetch of Mass Bay.  Reaching out President Roads, the big forty-footer just swallowed many of the oncoming waves, as Bob said she would, waves that would have sent things flying about the cabin aboard Piao, which is half the size of Argon.  Once we turned SE toward Plymouth and the canal, there were some good sized wind waves that we were taking on the port beam and quarter, rolling Argon far enough and often enough to spill her wind, and making sailing a challenge even after Bob rigged a preventer.  Things calmed down considerably once we were down inside Cape Cod Bay, and we arrived at the canal around midnight.  I know many people really do not like night boating, but I think I do.  It was a real thrill for me to transit the canal, especially at night, and to pass down Buzzards Bay to see the lights of New Bedford from offshore.  Funny, I have never been on Buzzards Bay when conditions were so calm and placid.  I learned that night the importance of the operative predicate in the term, 'Stand Watch.'

Seas running at Minots Light from the deck of Argon

The most memorable shipboard experience this year, however, were the three-weeks spent crew training aboard the square-rigged tallship, Kalmar Nyckel.  We were taught to wash dishes, mop and swab decks, tie knots, heave and coil line, climb rigging, stand watch, work sails, steer helm, boat check, and rehearse safety drills (Fire, MOB, AS).  It was a pretty intense and greatly rewarding period, with many special bonds forged between shipmates.  I will write a separate post on the Kalmar Nyckel experience.

Aboard the Kalmar Nyckel, working on the main yard, third from right 

One of the most challenging aspects was "learning the ropes," as they say (or, as they don't really say, since on a ship a "rope" is referred to as a "line," and most every line has a specific name that designates its intended function).  There are nearly 200 belaying points aboard the Kalmar Nyckel.  The rigging in this period-correct recreated sixteenth-century ship is among the most complicated of the Age of Sail.

Kalmar Nyckel Belaying Plan

c) Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, 2009

The captain of the Kalmar Nyckel, Lauren Morgans, introduced me to the people at SEA (Sea Education Association) in Woods Hole, MA, who run semester-at-sea programs.  Through her recommendation, I was invited to meet with the faculty and staff at SEA recently, who invited to join their January 2016 "colleague cruise" in the Caribbean (St. Croix to San Juan) aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, a 134-foot, 270 ton, tall ship research vessel.  More on that later, too.

Brigantine SSV Corwith Cramer

So, as 2015 comes to a close, I am feeling enthusiastic and excited about the coming year.  I have lots of plans: "Small Boat, Big Dreams."  A top priority next season will be to start overnight trips.  I would like to sail around the whole of Buzzards Bay, down to Cutty Hunk, back over to Westport, or even to Newport, or one day New London.  Eventually, I want to sail her down to Long Island, and over to the Vineyard.  "Uh-uh," the Admiral shakes her head.  "I'll meet you there."

Lots of book-learning scheduled for the winter campaign, too.  The learning curve remains steep.  Nevertheless, I am getting there, slowly.  My records show I have accrued over 100 USCG-qualifying 'Days-at-Sea' towards a Captain's license.  I know my COLREGs, a bunch of knots, and a modest but growing corpus of practical seamanship.  My first year sailing with my buddy Ric, when he owned this boat, we were out one day when a situation developed.  I don't remember what it was; I only remember how Ric reacted.  "Just sit down.  You are a nice guy, but you don't know what the f*** you are doing."  That was the shortest and greatest motivational speech I ever heard.  I want to think that I am starting to understand what I am doing......

Basking in my recent promotion from Half-Assed to only Quarter-Assed....