I was crew with one other experienced sailor and the owner when we sailed into Newport on a black night in a racer-cruiser called a Tripp 44 that had not been sailed in about five years. So everything sorta worked, some of the time.
We had been going into wind on our nose from Stratford, CT up Long Island Sound. The engine had been cranky, quitting twice before the Race and then finally dead for good just passing Race Rock. But we now had some wind, and it got better and fairer as we continued. The whole boat was electronic, which was wonderful when it worked, as there were about five repeaters of the compass display, not to mention all the other good stuff. Unfortunately, although we had plenty of good batteries (running lights working), the electronic stuff all started to quit on us and as it got good and dark, we were down to the whiskey compass and a flashlight. We sailed up to Point Judith, of interest because she shows a steady white light at you all the way. We looked at this ³harbor of refuge² and decided we¹d rather look at Newport to sail into. Went up the road there. Experience paid off, as the owner was a real master mariner and had been into Newport in all weather. You have to run right up almost to spit on Castle Rock before you can see the channel. Then it lays out before you with some light from the harbor, etc. Got up into the harbor and shortened sail to a reefed main (fast boat) so that we could go into the mooring field at a modest speed in hopes of picking up a mooring. By golly, the owner decided on just going up to a fine mooring ball and grabbing it (no pennant), getting a line on it and we were done, 3:30 a.m. Next day we got up and made it over to Warwick, under sail. The one thing we did without fail was to identify all the marks by several forms of confirmation. I think the essence of good DR is having a confirmed last known position (not some guess). --Dave Shugarts On 12/16/07 9:43 PM, "John C Meyers Jr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Chris, you really lead a tough life. I am envious. > > John Meyers > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 8:39 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: GPS > > > Just did a delivery a couple of months ago on a 54' Hateras from Annapolis to > Newport. Fog socked in about 40 miles from Newport and we could barely see > beyond the bow. We had radar too so we were able to see larger ships. > > > > Decided to layover in Block Island for the night rather than try to find a > marina we didn't know anything about in Portsmouth (and any excuse to spend a > night in Block is a good excuse). > > > > Set a waypoint to the entrance marker to the BI harbor and 2 hours later > almost ran over the damn thing. I love to navigate on paper, especially on > long trips, but wouldn't do a delivery without a good chart plotter. But > anytime someone is paying to have their boat moved, especially an easy run > like this most often has excellent electronics. > > > > Unfortunately there were no mooring balls available in Block and we weren't > sure if our anchor winch was working (on the capt. list). We tried all the > marinas and stumbled upon the she-she marina on the Island that hosts BIRW had > just had a 70' yacht cancel their reservation because of the weather a few > minutes earlier. Slip was $200 for the night but we didn't care (the owner > was paying for it) > > > > Tied up, went and had a great dinner (billed the owner), got drunk, slept it > off for a while in the am while the fog lifted. 2 hours later we were tooling > around Newport on our way to Portsmouth. Found the Hinckley yard in > Portsmouth (used to be the Hood yard) tied up and spend a night in Newport > fooling around. Gave the work list to the Hinckley guys the next morning and > hopped on a plane home. > > > > Chris D > toy box > eastport, md > > > > See AOL's top rated recipes > <http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004> and easy > ways to stay in shape > <http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aoltop00030000000003> for > winter. >
