Continuity

It is becoming clear that I need to take a more proactive approach to raising the Mermaid's mast and rigging her sails. For the last few weeks I have been making excuses not to do it. For example, the weather did not cooperate, again, this weekend and Matt (my sailing friend) and I didn't get together. Hence the boat remains mast-less and sitting, rather pathetically, in my driveway.

The truth is that the the process intimidates me. There is so much rope and cable that I find it overwhelming. That being said, I am running out of things to do instead. The engine is done, the pin stripe is on, and I power washed the deck (twice). I even tried to camped out in the cabin with my daughter, until it got so hot that the walls were sweating. The time has come to sail or sink, so to speak.

I started reading "Sailing For Dummies" a last weekend. After the first couple of chapters it became pretty obvious that unpacking, rigging, and raising the sails is a skill I have to acquire. It needs to be done each time the boat goes out and while it is in the water no less. The book takes a lot of the mystery out of the process and has pretty straight forward instructions about attaching the sail and rigging the ropes. It is a pretty decent book, and a quick read, but it scared the hell out of me. I am a fairly adventurous guy, and I have been accused of "jumping in with both feet" but the section on being "in the irons" gave me pause.

I guess I knew that the boat can't sail dead into the wind. As it turns out there is an area, called the no sail zone, that cover about 45 degrees on either side of the bow. To go against the wind you have to tack, or zig zag back and forth in the general direction you want to go. The problem is that when you tack you have to cross through the no wind zone. If you don't move quickly enough, you get stuck. You end up stranded with no wind in the middle of the sound. To make matters worse the sails will back fill and you will end up going backward in the water. Add to this the unintentional jibe - when you get the sail on the wrong side of the wind and the boom (which it the horizontal mast that makes up the bottom of the triangle that holds the main sail)flies across the cockpit with the speed and force of a small truck - and you have "being in the irons". All in all a terrible proposition that the book assures me will happen multiple times, usually at the worst possible moment. The book suggests taking lessons... I am considering it.

The book also reinforces my idea that there is a great deal of continuity in sailing. I think this is because people have been using more or less the same technology for the last 10,000 years. I think that is what appeals to me - tapping into that common history. I once read that when you are out in the water, under sail and far way from the land, you have left the world behind. No people, no cities, no engine, just the wind and the waves. You are using the same skills and having the same experience that a viking might have had, or a Persian trader, or even Columbus and in a way that experience connects you to them. Kind of cool if you think about it. Seems like there might be something profound out there. I am looking forward to finding out.

To that end, I ran into Keith on Monday. He told me my mooring is in the water and ready to go. Looks like the maiden voyage is going to be July 15! It looks like my friend Mike is on board to tow the Mermaid down to the harbor.

Update: Keith had an update on Daniel Rowe. He saw him sailing away from Mount Sinai Habor. We are still unable to contact him, but I called the Cape Cod Times and they have no reported shipwrecks that match the Pearson 22 he was sailing. They are looking into it...