Monday, March 30, 2015

Here we go again. In a week I'll be 74 years old, and I am planning another sailing trip starting in mid-May 2015. I sold Jubilee in early 2011. I had prepared this boat for long voyages at sea, and I figured I had scratched that itch and was concerned that the new electronics would soon be considered obsolete. The buyer was a most interest fellow, in his 90s but full of vigor with apparently all his faculties. At least he seemed that way to me, although others might have seen him differently. Marvin Creamer, of Atlantic Beach. NC, is the only man, living or dead, to circumnavigate the world without benefit of navigational aids other than a clock and a radio. He took no compass, no sextant, no Loran or RDF or GPS. He is a retired professor of Geography who was able to estimate his latitude by having a calendar and taking approximate angles of the sun each day at noon. He guessed at his longitude by noting the approximate time of the highest point of the sun. He also knew about ocean currents and temperatures. He understood cloud formations and when they indicated land nearby. He had crossed the Atlantic three times without instruments to develop his confidence (and that of his courageous crew) before setting out to sail around the world. Marvin's wife had passed away, I think in the 1990s, and so this lonely sailor had found a new gal on the Internet. They fell in love and got married. When I sold Marvin the boat they had been married for about two years. She was younger, age 87. He was 92 when I took him the boat. I kiddingly accused him of robbing the cradle. She was of English birth. Knowing this, right before I drove into their neighborhood with Jubilee on the trailer behind me, I mounted a British flag and an American flag on poles side by side to the bow pulpit of the boat. They were in the front yard when I pulled up, obviously thrilled with the delivery of the boat that would take them, according to their plans, from North Carolina to England, using instruments this time. They were like kids on Christmas morning. I do not know if they ever made the trip. It can be pretty rough in the Atlantic in a 20-foot sailboat. I think it does not matter much if they went. They shared a dream, a vision of doing something extraordinary, and they experienced the thrill of the planning. The main fault I felt regarding my passage to Nova Scotia in Flicka Jubilee was having made arrangements to meet various people on certain dates. Most of these folks planned to sail with me for a leg of the journey returning from Nova Scotia. These dates became deadlines, and the deadlines became "dreadlines" in my mind. Sailing is not like a train or bus or airline in which time or departure and arrival are reasonably predictable and manageable. On my earlier voyage we had started out for Bermuda but had engine problems and had to divert back to Southport, NC for repairs. This put us far enough behind so that we decided to skip Bermuda and head for Nova Scotia where Alice, my wife, had made reservations to meet us. At Nova Scotia I had to wait a week for a weather window, sending my intended crew back to Massachusetts rather than keep him indefinitely in Nova Scotia. I told him I would reimburse his flight ticket back, and it was $1,700. My next crew was my brother-in-law, Bill Tumlin, who flew up to Portland, Maine, where I intended to go from Nova Scotia. My weather window did not last, and I diverted first to Provincetown, MA. But, I could not stop in Provincetown to take Bill on board because U.S. Immigration had no facility there to clear me as I re-entered the USA from Canada. So, we finally met up at Plymouth, MA where I cleared customs. Bill sailed with me from Plymouth to Newport, some 18.5 hours mostly in fog. My intended crew from Newport to Oyster Bay, NY, hosted an annual party on July 4 and had to be back home for that. I was not sure we could make that happen. The pressure was just too much, and it got seriously into my enjoyment of the journey. So, I ended my journey in Newport. My upcoming voyage will be different. I plan to go solo, and I have no dates or deadlines whatsoever. Right now, Im not sure if I'll go north or south. If I go south, solo, I would plan to anchor each night, and I could make it to Stuart, FL, the entrance to the Okeechobee Canal across Florida to Fort Meyers, in two weeks. On nice days i would sail outside, along the coast generally within 5 miles of shore. On not-so-nice days I would use the Intracoastal waterway (ICW). If I go north I could reach the Chesapeake Bay in two weeks, or nearly so. Maybe it would be fun to go Beaufort, SC to Beaufort, NC. Most people in late May are traveling north for the summer, and there is some appeal in getting to know some migrating folks along the way. In any case, I do not have to reach any particular objective. I do need to be back in Beaufort in early June. I'll put Mardie II on a mooring when I end my journey and probably rent a car one way to get home, then hook up my trailer and go north to retrieve the boat. I need to introduce you to Myrdie III, a traditional Cape Dory Typhoon Senior that is 30 years old. She is 22 feet long and has a 5HP outboard motor, sloop-rigged, weighing in at 3,300 pounds of which 1,700 is in the lead keel. I bought her in 2011 in Atlanta from a boat dealer near Lake Lanier. Here is a link to the specifications of a Typhoon Senior:http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=255 . Stay tuned for updates and a more personal introduction to Myrdie III

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