Salty's misadventures

[curtisv]

My friend and neighbor Ron volunteered to help with launching.  We ended up making a short sail of it, with his wife Susan, daughter Laura, and Laura's significant other Steve.

We launched from the River Road on The River which leads into Pleasant Bay (Cape Cod, MA - see NOAA 13237 or Maptech 50E or see http://www.faster-light.net/remote-access/image/50E-01.png, noting that the River is to the north a ways from the image file which is part of 50E).

We started out experimenting with a new sculling oar.  After fumbling with that we turned to sailing.  Our dinghy, Salty, was secure on a horn cleat at the bow and tagging alongside.  Salty is a 12 year old Maine Salty rather in need of repair.  Her rubrails and the wood they attach to had long ago fallen off and the gunwalls have an exposed raw fiberglass edge.  Salty has seen better days.  Perhaps she has at some time overheard me say that.

Along the way Ron uncleated Salty and handed her painter to Laura.  Laura did something with the painter on the stern rail which was intended to resemble a knot.  To her credit she did point out that she wasn't sure it was secure.  We were short tacking so I decided it looked secure enough for the moment and I'd fix it up when we got past the narrow part of The River.  The River widens near Frostfish Cove and I looked back to see Salty still there but the change in land topology had winds shifting directions on us and I was again distracted.  The River then narrows again and widens a lot near the entrance to Arey's Pond.  A bit into that wider area I looked back and Salty was nowhere to be found.  Rather than go back and try to search the tall beachgrass along the side, I chose to venture on and return to pick up Salty using a kayak later.

The sail to the mooring was uneventful with a few comic moments and a few people getting nervous about possibly having to swim for shore, but we dealt with it.

My next sail was a day later.  I returned with kayak in tow to the part of The River near Frostfish Cove where I anchored.  In the kayak, I searched the eelgrass there and all the way back to where we launched, going in and out of tiny coves that I didn't even know existed or had no idea of their extent.  No luck in that direction so I tried the other direction, toward the Arey's Pond entrance.  This is a lot more area to cover.  As it turns out I may have kayaked right past Salty who was hiding in the tall beachgrass.  It was no longer near high tide at this point so the grass could more easily hide a dinghy.

Having kayaked for about half the day I returned to the mother ship, our CP23, and sailed home.  Ran aground once and got knocked down with water over the coaming once, but otherwise an uineventful sail.

The next day, Sunday, we had prolonged morning thunderstorms and the threat of scattered thunderstorms during the day.

Monday I returned to resume the search.  This time I went with the theory that perhaps the tidal current took Salty further out before the wind blew her into the eelgrass.  I anchored in Little Pleasant Bay, just south of where Salty had gone missing.  I checked the shores of Hog Island, then the end of Barley Neck, then back toward the entrance to Arey's Pond along the east shore.  This was a pleasant kayak paddle, ducking under private docks and looking into the beachgrass along the way.  It is there I spotted Salty, high an dry on the beach at high tide just beyond the grass.  I had to walk through the grass to reach her and there I found some compressed grass in the shape of a dinghy.  I looks as though Salty hid there in the tall grass but was washed up on the beach in the strong winds and wind blown high tide when we had thunderstorms.

So I secured the kayak to Salty's painter and rowed back to the mother ship.

The sail back was great.  Perfect winds, probably 10-12 knots, steady direction and few gusts.

Having sailed back to the mooring, Salty did her job admirably, taking me and taking things like the cooler that are too big to bring in with a kayak back to the beach where Salty spends most of her summer.

Curtis

[Bob23]

Great tale...a faithful dingy Salty truly is!
Bob23

[wes]

"Ran aground once and got knocked down with water over the coaming once, but otherwise an uneventful sail."

Beautiful; I love that. Trying to imagine the probable outcome if that happened to me with my wife on board, or even if I uttered those words in my house. I would be fortunate if divorce were the only result. Murder might be more likely.

Wes

[curtisv]

"Ran aground once and got knocked down with water over the coaming once, but otherwise an uneventful sail."

Beautiful; I love that. Trying to imagine the probable outcome if that happened to me with my wife on board, or even if I uttered those words in my house. I would be fortunate if divorce were the only result. Murder might be more likely.

Wes

Wes,

Sounds like your wife is certainly tough on you.

I don't worry much about such things, but the wifey does get a little stressed.  We just today had a good illustration of that.  See http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=6773.0.  But nowdays she gets over it very quickly.

She used to get all upset a few years back if everything didn't go perfectly.  When we first started sailing together she'd be upset if the boat heeled.

I guess she has figured out that we always somehow get through things with us and the boat intact, even though her immediate reaction when things go wrong borders on panic.

Curtis


ps - the longer version of "Ran aground once and got knocked down with water over the coaming once, but otherwise an uneventful sail." is at http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=6728.0, where maybe I did add a bit to another thread, staying on topic so as hopefully no considered a hijack.  It didn't want to repeat that story here, hence the abbreviated report of that day's sail.