Apr 28 2009
Playing in the Bay
Ahhh, my friends I got up yesterday, kayaked to the marina to fill my thermos with dark roast and French vanilla, grabbed a blueberry bagel, and headed back to Emmanuelle. Pulled the dinghy onto of the cabin to dry and bent the sails, weighed the heavy Danforth anchor and sat in the cockpit to enjoy my coffee while answering email.
I stowed the kayak and weighed the “lunch anchor” and headed to the pump-out station to empty the head and dispose of my trash. By the time I hit the entrance to the bay it was almost 1100. Ten to fifteen knot winds from the south west and a one foot sea today, Awesome!! But I knew I wouldn’t make it to Smith Point by the time the wind shifted and the gusts started, not to mention the small craft advisory after midnight and thru Tuesday. So in a situation like this you have to ask yourself, “WWJBD?” that’s right, What Would Jimmy Buffett Do? The answer was obvious to me, “Haul the Sheet in and Ride on the Wind That our forefathers harnessed before Us….”
I pointed the bow into the wind, and hoisted the sails. The wind was coming from the south west, so I came about and headed north east, swung the boom as far to port as I could and set the jib as far to starboard and made a run for about two hours. Then I just played in the bay. Tacking back and forth across the water, south, east, and west and back again, bringing the boom in on a close reach for awhile, then jibe and swing it out for the broad reach. Back and forth in the 90 degree day.
No sound intruding in my paradise other than the wind filling my rig, the splash of the waves on the hull and the occasional transmission on the VHF radio. Around 200 I started back to the harbor heading west by a little south west, about as close to the wind as you can sail. After about 20 minuets the wind changed, coming from the south. Emmanuelle started to heel over and I adjusted the sails and stood fast as she started to right herself. I hauled the sheet in a little and let her heel. 5 degrees, 10, 20, 35 degrees and she kept going. Burying the rail is something I have never been too fond of, that’s when you keel over so far the toe rail and gunwale are under water, so I kept an eye on the rail and if she gets too close, I’ll push the tiller to windward and depower the sails to right her. Then as she heeled past 50 degrees, she sped up and the sound changed, the wind was the same but the sound of the waves slapping was different. I got so excited I actually yelled out “HOLY SHIT!!!” somewhere between 50 degrees and burying the rail, I found the ‘sweet spot’.
All boats have them, its that spot where you actually change the length of water line and surface touching the water. See, a sailboat is a displacement hull design, the short explanation is they will only go so fast, weather by wind or by engine. Take the square root of the length of water line multiply that by 1.34 and that’s the hull speed. You wont go any faster, Unless you can change the length of water line by heeling over and get the bow to start to planing the water. Which is why the sound changed, I leaned over as far as I dared and looked out, down and forward along the water line. A boat makes three types of waves as she moves, the bow wake, a mid wave that travels slightly behind the bow and travels to stern, and the one everyone knows, the stern wake. As I looked forward, there was only one set of waves, Emmanuelle’s bow was planing the surface!!
The feeling I had was a mix of feelings, the fear of a gust and capsizing, exhilaration like you get when you drive your car as fast as you can knowing you are in total control, excitement like the butterflies you get when you move in for that first kiss, my knees moving with the waves as I leaned over to keep my weight centered in the cockpit, as I watched the mainsail above me, Beautiful! The belly of the sail full, then I saw it happen and yelled “NO!!!” as the wind started to die a little and she started to come up , The Father of the Four Winds only allowed me the pleasure for few brief moments and then snatched it away from me.
Even though it was frustrating to feel that for such a brief time, I had to smile as she stood straighter and slowed to hull speed. Her balance in the water was as perfect as a ballerina’s on a stage. It was almost as if she gave me that feeling I love to experience, to show me some of the love I show her. She is my well balanced Sailing Vessel Emmanuelle, and I am her Captain.
Your expertise at writing and sailing… deems you blessed.