OzOne wrote in message ...
|
| I'm happy for you Cappy.


Thank you, Sir! There is nothing like a good sail to put things into perspective.

CN




|
| On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:31:48 -0500, Capt. Neal®
| scribbled thusly:
|
| Dear Group,
|
| It sure takes a sorry bunch of losers and lamers to spend so
| much of their time posting here when they could be sailing. I
| can understand how those who have no boats and sail vicariously
| through those of us who do have boats are caught in this insidious
| trap but I just can't figure out why those who DO have boats
| forsake sailing them in lieu of blathering inanities here.
|
| Instead of pontificating in this forum about how great one's boat
| is on paper compared to others' boats and trying to justify yet
| another uninformed purchase, would it not be better to be out sailing
| said vessel to ascertain her strong and weak points so the weak can
| be corrected and the strong appreciated?
|
| It is ever a sad state of affairs when those who pretend lead around
| by the nose those who cannot recognize a pretender, is it not? Sorry
| guys, but I, Capt. Neal, am intelligent enough to not fall prey to such
| nonsense. I'd rather be sailing.
|
| My latest sail consisted of a rowdy broad reach up to the Little
| Shark River in the Everglades to ride out Hurricane Wilma. "Cut
| the Mustard" and two other vessels ("Harbinger" - an Atlantic
| City Cat 24 and "Breakin' Wind" - an Irwin 32 center cockpit)
| sailed up from the Keys the Wednesday prior to the storm's landfall.
| We arrived with a couple of days to spare before Wilma (who hung
| around the Yucatan for days) made landfall on the peninsular. We
| sought safe harbor way up a Shark River tributary and on a side
| creek of that tributary where the mangrove's grow higher than
| anywhere else in the USA. Imaging fifty and sixty foot tall, thick
| groves of mangroves. That's where we sheltered. We tied up to the
| mangroves on either side of the little side creek. Luckily, the mosquitoes
| were nowhere to be seen but, unfortunately, the no-see-ums were
| thicker than lies in a Bobsprit post.
|
| We experienced the core of the hurricane and the south eye wall
| with sustained winds of well over 120 knots and higher gusts (Joe,
| put me down for riding out without a scratch yet another storm!).
| Have any of you ever experienced 'rain' consisting of crushed and
| shredded leaves? That's what we had. The lush tropical forest
| canopy was turned to brown and broken branches by the time the
| storm had passed - a period of about 10-12 hours.
|
| Interestingly, we had a two or three knot current sideways to the
| creek when the fifteen foot storm surge rolled in. All three boats
| came through without a scratch or breakage of any sort. It took me
| three hours, though, to clean all the bits and pieces of leaves and
| sticks from my boat. Luckily I had plenty of bleach to counteract
| the tannic acid from the leaves which had stained my light green
| nonskid brown and my white paint on the deck yellow/brown. Yuck!
| But a little elbow grease was all it took to get things shipshape again.
|
| We three single-handers enjoyed the storm and the company of real
| sailors and even had plenty of rum and ice too keep us in good
| cheer. We enjoyed an abundance of good food and music and tall
| tales.
|
| After the storm passed we waited a day for the storm surge to
| subside and the river current to free itself somewhat of flotsam
| and headed back downriver. We sailed out of the mouth of the
| river just as a Coast Guard helicopter passed overhead. They had
| 'spotted' all seven or eight vessels that had sought refuge up
| the river prior to the storm and had returned to make sure
| all was well. I can imagine the crew looking down and thinking
| to themselves, "Now, there's three "real" sailors down there!
| If all sailors were like them we'd be out of a job."
|
| The wind was very light out of the northwest as we ghosted
| down the Gulf Coast toward East Cape and the yacht channel to
| the south. We ran out of daylight near Schooner Bank and anchored
| in its lee in a freshening northeast wind. The wind built during
| the night and the next day we enjoyed a screaming reach down
| to the yacht channel markers and Intracoastal Waterway. I sailed
| all the way to Steamboat Channel and put the Irwin and the
| catboat hull down. From Steamboat Channel it was a motor
| job up to the anchorage off the "OV" - that's short for the
| Ocean View Bar and Grill (which sits on the bayside - go figure) -
| where we went ashore for a cheeseburger in paradise. The skipper
| of the "Breakin' Wind" is a real ladies man and sort of a local
| legend and he had several women all over him so Catboat Jim and
| I had plenty of attention as well dealing with the overflow.
|
| A good boat, a fresh breeze and a woman in every port - it doesn't
| get any better than that. . .
|
| So, let this be a lesson to all of you who think sailing is nothing
| more than a pack of lies and bull**** on a sailing newsgroup. Get
| out there and go sailing. Even a hurricane offers us real sailors an
| opportunity to DO instead of imagining doing. How many of
| you reading this can claim over a hundred and twenty miles
| of sailing in the path of a hurricane and are able to look back
| on it as some of the best days of your life?
|
| No response? I figured as much.
|
| Respectfully,
| Capt. Neal
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Oz1...of the 3 twins.
|
| I welcome you to crackerbox palace,We've been expecting you.