Or, Boy was my face red!
I was sailing by myself although I don’t think it would have made any difference. It was such a lovely sail, I think if I’d had someone with me we would have ended up admiring the beautiful day and the fabulous job we were doing of sailing, and still have made this mistake -- unless my sailing companion had been very alert, but sometimes I think airhead moments are contagious.
BCYC had sailed to Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton for the weekend. I took my boat by myself, arrived with no difficulty but ended up in a slip near the river’s current. In the morning, when it was time to leave, a strong current was running, and the man on the boat next to me helped me get my boat out. As he took the last line off the dock, he said, “What should I do with it?”
“Just throw it up on the deck,” I said. “I’ll stow it after I’m underway.”
When the wind is right, you can sail the Manatee River. It’s such a beautiful river, and this day the wind was out of the southwest. I put the sails up and delighted in turning the engine off (my favorite part of any sail) and moved out toward Tampa Bay. The Genny was a bit of a pain to deploy because of its design, which includes a continuous line that leaves two lines running up to the back of the boat, but it deployed well. As I turned toward the Skyway Bridge and the “ditch” that runs more or less north and south along it, I was watching two boats ahead. They were easily recognizable as two other members of BCYC, both of them excellent sailors – and I was keeping up with them! Boy, I’m getting good at this! I thought. I was going to be on some point of a port tack for the entire trip. How sweet is that?
I tweaked my miansail sheet; I tweaked the traveler; I tweaked the Genny, and I was still keeping up with them. The boat was sailing beautifully, and I thought, “That’s why I sail her by myself sometimes. I’ve done this on my own. I own this successful sail.”
A little later I noticed the two boats, who were about two miles in front of me, sailing, not motoring, up the Ditch. “Oh, good! I won’t have to turn the engine on!” Sure enough, the wind was still from the southwest, and I sailed up the ditch in blissful silence except for the swish of water on the hull.
I watched as my friends turned west, and noted that they kept on sailing across Pinellas Point in the east-west channel at the tip of the Pinellas peninsula, and thought, “Dang – I’m going to be able to sail right up to the bridges! This is great. I’ll bring my sails in at Structure E (the bridge to Tierra Verde), put the headsail back out afterwards and I’ll be able to sail all the way back to BCYC!”
I was really full of myself by this point. I’m surprised I didn’t sprain something patting myself on the back, because I was still keeping up with two men I considered to be really excellent sailors.
I was so full of myself that I completely forgot about the loose line on the foredeck.
Unfortunately, by the time I got to the Pinellas Point channel, there had been a slight wind shift – just enough that I could not sail west. No matter how determined I might have been, the channel is just too narrow in some places for a boat my size to tack, especially single-handed. The only choice I had was to bring the sails in and turn the engine on. Darn it!
I got to a wide place in the channel, locked the wheel, turned the engine on and sprinted up to the mast and tightened the lazy jacks. Mainsail down.
Then I tried to pull in the Genny. It wouldn’t come in! By now I was headed to a narrow area, so I turned around, went back to the beginning of the wide part and tried again. No deal. Something was jamming it. I was starting to think things stronger than “Darn it!”
So I turned the boat around again, and followed the double line up to the bow, where I found that loose bow line tangled in the roller furler lines. I really couldn’t get it untangled in that narrow channel. I needed to be at the wheel. I now couldn't get the Genny out properly, or do anything else except listen to it mocking me as it flapped and rattled with the boat pointed directly into the wind.
Structure E was just about to open as I approached, and as I turned, of course the Genny started to fill with wind. Fortunately it had a terrible shape, spilled wind, and didn’t influence the boat much as I went under the bridge. There was only 10 minutes to the next bridge, so I just gave her all the engine could safely give, and made it to that bridge.
Now I was in Boca Ciega Bay. I moved the boat away from the shallow areas around the bridge, went to the mast, loosened the lazy jacks, pulled the mainsail up again, and heaved the boat to. She was drifting sideways, but I was able to get the lines untangled and bring the Genny in properly.
Clutter on your decks can cause all sorts of problems, and I was actually lucky that there wasn’t a front coming through, or a rising wind, or a pop-up storm, or some other bigger problem to solve. When you can’t control a sail for some reason, it can cause serious problems. I was foolish to not make stowing that line a priority. I should have done it before touching a sail.
Keep your decks clear. Stow all your lines. This is one reason why boats have things like wheel brakes and autopilots, so you can leave the cockpit and deal with things. If your boat has a tiller, you can get a gadget called a “Tiller Tamer,” and in reasonable weather and seas it will hold your boat steady enough to deal with things like lines that need to be stowed. “Tiller Tamers” and “Tiller Tenders” hold the tiller where you’ve set it while you go forward, visit the head, or grab a snack. It can be tiring to have to hold the tiller for hours on end, and even a short break can be helpful. Here’s a link to a Tiller Tamer at a company called Defender. They often have good prices, and are known for good service. http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|118|297677|1863917&id=92415
My bias is to pay attention to the sheets in the cockpit. You don’t want to coil them tightly while you’re sailing, but you can still tuck them out of the way of people’s feet. Take care of these things, and then if a problem arises you can focus on the problem and not first have to perform the tasks you should have done earlier.
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