On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:42:57 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2007-10-27 08:22:45 -0400, Geoff Schultz said:

Skip certainly has had more than his share of problems, and many of
them are self inflicted, but he's out there doing it and hopefully
learning from his mistakes. Many of the so-called experts in this
forum spend all of their time behind a computer and quote text books
instead of actually cruising. Maybe Skip is crazy by documenting his
adventures and misfortunes in such a public fashion, but I give him
credit for not giving up.

BINGO!

I rag on him on occasion, but generally because I forget how new he and
Lydia are to cruising. They have researched things and intellectually
"know" so much that I expect more that can be reasonably expected.

BUT, even experienced sailors in their home turf can make mistakes.

Case in point: Last weekend, we sorta hosted a raft-up of Tanzers.
Someone else called the rendezvous, but I refined the location to the
anchorage nearest to our dock. This is an anchorage we anchored in
probably 30 days this season. (for those that know the Chesapeake, this
is Fairlee Creek.)

But, because it was after the powerboats' season, I chose to try out
just behind the sand spit, normally clogged up with "them".

'Tis a WONDERFUL spot. We could see everyone coming in the channel
through 3+ foot Chesapeake chop while we luxuriated in nearly flat
conditions on the other side of the spit. The view of the full moon
coming up was inspirational.

But, I neglected to consider what happens when 20+ knot winds shift
from southerly to northerly on the Bay. Been there before, but this
time I just didn't think about the effects of such a shift.

About 1 AM we noticed we were aground and at about 10 degree heel.

By 3 AM, that was 35 degrees by our inclinometer.

Some snipped

I think the big difference between Skip and the rest of us is that
Skip doesn't appear to be shy about chronicling his screw-ups. If it
were me and I had dragged two or three times in the same area I'd keep
it a deep dark secret. Skip 'fesses up to his short comings.

I certainly don't tell people about the time I sailed into a bay
depending on a 50 year old survey only to discover that coral grows
quite a bit in 50 years, or the time I tried to pick up a mooring only
to discover that the "orange ball" wasn't a mooring, it was a buoy the
local fishermen put out to mark shallow water.

To quote an old saying, "there are people who have run aground, people
who are going to run aground and damned liars".

Skip certainly don't fall in the last group.




Bruce-in-Bangkok
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