So, in the month of June I went on two amazing sailing trips. Enjoy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17102886@N00/
The first trip came about as a result of bad weather. My dad was sailing with his friend “L” and L’s girlfriend “M”. They were sailing L’s J42 from Great Exuma, Bahamas to East Hampton, New York. This is a roughly 1000 mile trip. They tried to beat a storm that was heading northeast up the Atlantic Coast. When the storm got in front of them they turned West and docked at a marina in North Carolina. Enter me.
I had flown from L.A. to North Carolina and was staying at my folk’s house – which was empty. So I got in the evening of Friday, June 1st and I was vegging in an easy chair watching the Discovery Channel, and I was thinking “I should be social and go introduce myself to the neighbors” because my folks had told the couple that lives across the street that I would be at their house, when about ten seconds later, there was a knock at the front door. I answered it and met “D”, the neighbor from across the street who told me my dad was on the phone and that his wife was talking to him – my parents had turned off their phone since my dad would be sailing and my mom would be staying on their boat in East Hampton. So I shook his wife’s hand, took the phone and heard “Hey Ty. How was your flight?” followed by “I need you to jump in the car and pick me up. I’m at Southport Marina in Southport, North Carolina which is about three hours south of you.” So I Google Mapped it, printed the directions, jumped in the car and drove down there.
I passed both Cherry Point Marine Air Station (largest Marine air base in the country) and Camp Le Jeune which is a Marine training facility and base on the way there. I also drove through some beautiful country. North Carolina looks a lot like Eastern Long Island. Sandy soil, lots of pines and deciduous trees, it’s pretty flat and very rural. It has that somewhat windswept look, with huge expanses of land and farms. Long Island and North Carolina both have a lot of corn fields too. So I got down there, found the marina and hopped onto the boat. I chatted with L and met M for the first time. And then my dad pulled me aside and told me the trip I was supposed to go on had been pushed back for a scheduling conflict, but I could go with him and L and M to East Hampton if I wanted and then if I wanted to go again I could go on the second trip.
I jumped at the chance and we left on Tuesday, June 5th. We left Southport at about 9:30 in the morning and had to motor for a while. But later in the day we put both sails up and hauled ass. The J is a racer/cruiser so it moves very quickly, even in light wind. We sailed right into the Atlantic. The following day M caught a Dorado(Mahi Mahi) off the back of the boat. Amazingly she caught it using a spinning lure with a piece of chicken on the hook and a plastic hand reel of line. She filleted it so deftly on the deck, behind the helm. It was like she was performing a magic trick. It reminded me of a samurai in battle. Really something to see. She also cooked it and she’s a tremendous chef. The following day she caught a larger Dorado. She hadn’t caught anything until I came on board so I took that to mean I had brought some good fortune with me.
The weather was cool and very pleasant. We sailed most of the time and we flew. The J is really an awesome boat to sail. It just goes like a rocket. I joked to my dad “If Porsche made a sailboat it would be called a J.” There is one downside of course to all that fast sailing – you sacrifice comfort in rough weather. At one point, there were 3-4 foot waves coming from three directions. The bottles of water in the quarter berth where I was going to lay down and sleep were walking across the floor. I watched the bottles get closer to the door as I rode up and down on the bunk. Then I moved them back just in case I had to get out of my cabin in an emergency. Then I laid down and rode up and down the waves for an hour or two until I fell asleep. Other than that moment the trip was brilliant. It was fun, relaxing, spiritually fulfilling and generally a blissful time.
Then I stayed with my folks on their boat in East Hampton. Two weeks later I went on another trip from North Carolina to East Hampton. This time we left from the town of Oriental – three hours drive North from Southport. A crew of five guys including me, my dad, “S”, the owner of the Hans Christian 43, “F”, a friend of both S’s and my dad, and “B”, a friend of S. We left at daybreak on June 19th. We were followed by a couple in a Tayana 40, which looks very similar to the Hans Christian as they were designed by the same guy. We wound up taking the Intracoastal Waterway and the couple was planning to follow us to Norfolk, Virginia. Then they would head out into the Atlantic and on to Nova Scotia and we would head to East Hampton.
So we left on the Intracoastal which runs from Florida to New Jersey and is a series of natural cuts in the land that are connected by canals that were dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers. The couple who were very nice and funny, followed us to the Alligator River Marina and then had to turn back and head home to Florida because they’re daughter had just had a baby. So we said goodbye to them and they headed back and we docked in the marina and got up the next day and headed to Norfolk. Tuesday it was scorching hot and we had to motor and motor-sail so we lounged in the cockpit and drank tons of water. I got a bit sunburned. The next day it was much cooler since it was overcast. We still didn’t really get to sail because there wasn’t enough wind. Even if there had been we couldn’t sail because we’d have to avoid shoals and patches of the canals that weren’t dredged enough. The Hans Christian draws eight feet of water. It sits well in the water, it’s rock solid and it’s very safe. It’s a modified Norwegian lifeboat design, sort of the Volvo of sailboats. But it was a delightful boat to be in on a storm. More on that later.
When we left Norfolk and got into the ocean it was pure zen. We finally put up the sails and turned off the motor. It’s a cutter so it has a main mast, a forestay and an inner forestay with a club-foot on it. We raised the mainsail, rolled out the trisail on the inner forestay and also flew a Yankee from the forestay. The boat sails really well and with three sails going it points well. It’s also an easy boat to steer because the rudder is about five feet long and four feet wide. During the day we’d have great conversations in the cockpit. F is a semi-retired architect, so he and I chatted about architecture and art. B is an economist and economics professor, so we talked about economics and politics. S is a former marine biologist and researcher, so we talked about marine life and he told us some of his ocean sailing stories. He’s actually sailed off Greenland in the Arctic Ocean. A very cool guy and quite an intrepid sailor.
On Friday night we sailed through really strong winds. Technically they were Near Gale on the Beaufort Scale. Translation – 33 knot per hour winds and 10-15 foot seas. That’s when the boat’s seaworthiness really came into play. It was exciting and adrenaline-charged when I took the wheel at 12:15 at night. But I wasn’t scared. I knew the boat could hold up to way more abuse than the crew could. My only concern was stuff being thrown around the cabin and people being able to sleep. It is pretty awe-inspiring surfing down waves in almost pitch black darkness. I also now know what to expect from higher winds. Also, now I officially have boat fever and really want to buy one and live on it. Sailing offshore is fantastic. It’s truly ecstatic to get completely out of sight of land, put up the sails and fly. There’s no substitute for the freedom of just going and being beholden to only the weather and your own limits. I recommend everyone tries it at least once. 
