hair brain idea explained

Hair Brain Idea…

What else do you have to do in the middle of the night while sailing in the… dark, cold, rain, and you are slowly being dragged further out to sea (which was a good thing)… I had to ask myself while in the thick of it… how did I get here?

Well for you faithful readers I’ll give you the life and times of a green horn captain and her thinking… should I be decaptained? I think not… this case just a little more wiser… it’s all in the learning.  The greatest lessons in life are those that one experiences.

So we can back up a bit…

Tuesday after the holiday Labor day we called 5 boatyards. We had our list. We know what we need. And we have learned a lot about boatyards and communication. We picked Oceans Pursuits in Rockland, a 45 mile sail. If we went 5 knots an hour it would take 9 hrs to get there, assuming the winds were right. (key point here… the winds were right).

Ben and I had wanted to sail to Mount Desert Rock cuz there are to be whales to be watched out there.  He said it was about 10 miles or so.  In my mind I counted 55 miles. We could have left Wednesday sailed half way, then the rest on Thursday.  Wednesday’s weather was stormy – Thursday weather looked better. Ben wanted to leave on Thursday and sail into the night out at sea then come in at early dawn.  We both knew that sailing in Miane  near the islands or coast during the  night was out of the questions but here Ben was asking if we could do that. He had a good point we would stay out far enough.

Instead of me saying what was on my mind – which is no way lobster lines at night – I thought…  Well he has a point and I’ve been really good at feeling more comfortable with sailing in different conditions – which has been good training and stretching and learning –

I also have in the back of my mind. I’m the captain and like I’m the boss at work. I try to listen to everyone. Hear their feedback. Weigh everyones thoughts and many times I let the staff decided since they do the work everyday and they know a lot more than I do about certain tasks – but when it relates to the overall picture of the business I know that I have to go with my gut (God’s nudge) cuz I’m the one that has to live with the consequences in the long term. Plus if I make a bad decision yes the staff might suffer with me in the decision but then I only have myself to blame.

I’m not pushy, or loud, or bossy nor do I make people know that I’m the boss unless it is tongue and cheek.  Same with Ben – we tease about me being captain in a good way (or so I think, you might have to ask Ben that question.) Well Ben is quick to say I am the captain.  His past jobs he has been a nurses aid, people say he should be a nurse he is so good and caring but he will tell you he does not want the responsibility and he does not want the paperwork. Then he was a paraprofessional at a HS for special ED for 17 years and he was well respected by all his peers and teachers. They would encourage him to get a teaching degree and his answer would be, “I don’t want the responsibility and the paperwork. I like the hands on work.” So it does seem natural and to us it seems natural. If you ask Ben why not be the captain he will tell you, “I don’t want the responsibility, Pam has more common sense, she is more safety conscience, I don’t like the paperwork and I’d rather just be sailing.” Those comments I would concur. We essentially do all the same things. We confer on the days happenings we hoist sails and steer. 

Interestingly enough when we started talking about Ben bringing out a crew to sail with him excitedly  asked me, “Ok, so, what do you do that now I have to do?” I was so happy that he as all ears! We made a list of things he would need to teach the crew, plus we made a list of things that I do that he doesn’t do.  This was so great cuz why can’t he do paperwork stuff too? Oh yeah he doesn’t want to know he see the honor in doing them and wants to make sure he and his crew will be safe.  Here is the list that I do as captain: I have a mental check list in my head before we take off: check the… bildge, oil, batteries, fuel filter, water strainer, I count the hours on our tank of diesel, make sure we have water, check the head, we go around and check the rigging: cotter pins (I have found one that fell off!!!! It was all good), check white tape, look for loose things on deck, in the log book I write: date, time, from place to place, wind direction speed, long-lat, weather forecast, hours on the engine to-date and anything else that will help me remember this day. If it is an overnight I keep a long-lat and write it down every so often so if we are out of gps we know our last sighting.  Ben has and does join in some of these events but I’m the one to make sure they happen. Oh I also have a list of the food on board so when we finish some stuff I cross it off so we know how much food is left too. I’m sure he thinks that might be a bit overkill.  And ultimately if I don’t feel safe going at a certain time or I don’t feel safe with out fuel filter not being replaced or … we don’t go … and Ben always has respected my decision cuz ultimately he has to live with me ha ha ha. I consider him a co-captain really – he does too – accept I have the very last say and mostly it is about safety. Oh and I really do have experience sailing 5 years on a CNC 29.

Since Ben has a bigger comfort zone of  withstanding cold… he likes more adventure, he has a stronger body, and he likes to live on the edge… he likes to do things without planning and go by the seat of his pants (this has served him well and is fun on land to do)… he likes to suggest things that I’m not ready for (and frankly I don’t think he is either but he likes to learn from mistakes – well I do to but how miserable do I want to be? My comfort zone is smaller than his but bigger than most women I know!)

Sooooo this summer I have been feeling our experience increase through rain, fog, winds, long days, many hours sailing and docking and mooring and anchoring that I’m easing up on what he would like to do as long as I still feel comfortable and it is a smart thing to do.

This request of his to sail at night was followed by … we could stay out of the area and sail the ocean at night.  I weighed the pros and cons in my head. I should have said them outloud but instead I went into my head and thought… “well he says it is only 10 miles to MDRock then 45 more if we leave at 6am we would have 13 hours of daylight and one hour of dusk. We could motor the last hour to get in faster if we needed.” So I said yes not looking at the winds. I want to make sure he makes many decisions or we make them together.  Last year I said no a lot. This year  I’ve  only had a few and have explained my no’s pretty good. He’s happy go lucky like I am so it is all good what we do.

My response to his idea was, “Sure if we leave at 6am” Which was a surprise to him that I would say that cuz we know and I know that he is not an early bird to say the least. He likes a slow morning and I like to get going. All summer we pretty much have had slow mornings so it is my turn to get up and get going.  In the back of my mind was we would make it to Rockland by sunset but I never told him that.

6am I bounced out of bed and away we went, Lesson one: don’t sail into the sun in the morning if you can avoid it.  There were two ways around a few island go east first then north to west or go west first then north to east. Oh boy, it was right in my face and that was so hard to see the lobster lines and buoys that it took along time to get through the mine field!

We set out and headed south to MDRock. I look on the chart and it really was 20 miles.  Ben looked, ooppss you are right I  measured from the closest island to MDR. Oh well.  Oh well I thought and did the math of hours hummm… look at the winds they are north west exactly the way we want to go.  This will take us double time.  At that moment I was resigned to sailing at night. BUT I should have just looked for a different port to come to at sunset – got a good night sleep then head out the next day. I thought… Ben doesn’t get much time to do things like he would want… when I should have told him my safety issues with the idea.  If I would, he would have listened and he told me he would have agreed if I would have said something.

We saw no whales but had a great sail to the rock and that day.  Here comes night….

The clouds started to roll in.  Still I’m positive about the weather. It was fun to track the clouds and try to avoid the rain as it came our way.  That was fun to do.  The night started early now at about 7am. I did not sleep the night before we left (well now I know why I should have listened to my sleepless night). I was tired. The wind was 15-17k and Ben was turning out more to sea to get away from the lobster lines that so easily fowl us and get wrapped in between the skeg and propeller area.

Once in a while we would hit a lobster line and I could hear the buoy go bang bang bang on our hull and I’d hold my breath that it would not get hooked.  None did for that while.

I looked at the chartplotter on my shift.  We were getting out and still lobster lines. We would see, I guess in sept the lobster lines go further out to sea as the lobsters start going out for the winter.

Here I was… 11pm. My shift 11-3am. I could see the dark sky of rain clouds tring to smother out any chance of light. It was also the phase in the moon where you don’t see the moon.  We are talking dark! So dark that the bio-illuminesence were amazing! The water glowed when churned up.  The wave top splashes were glowing like something out of a sci-fi movie. Our trail of wake was glowing and there was one long stream of something that looked like a lit-up el. (Ya know the el’s that glow in the dark but long extending 30 yards back) it was following us.  I could see 3 stars for a long time. The wind was cold off the port blowing past the side of my face. I was wearing: long sleeve shirt then long underwear shirt, then turtle neck, then hooded jacket then my winter outer jacket, a head band, a rain cap made for sailing in rain, longies on the legs, jeans, and rain pant with thick socks and rubber boots.  The temp was aboug 51 degrees and the wind hit my face and was cold.  I only put out the main sail so as to waste time and just wait til morning light. I tacked back and forth in a small area. I was standing up cuz my butt was tired of sitting. I turned facing starboard and steered with the wheel under my armpit and my hip tight against the wheel so I could keep it in place while shading the wind from my face and also my 3 friends… the stars… were smiling at me.

This is the time I had all the time in the world to sit and think… how did I get talked into this?  I wasn’t talked into it. I am the captain and I let it happen. Then I reflected… I can’t wait till Ben takes out his crew of guys and does stuff like this.  I could be a fair-weather sailor what is the shame in that? I know when we sail around the world I will have to face, cold, wind, weather, etc… but not by choice.

While I watched the sky grow completely dark and my three little friends I had to say, “Noooo don’t go…. You are the only thing I can see… stay with meeeee…..” one by one… bye, bye, bye…. Darkness had enveloped my stand. The wind was going through to my legs… I played mind games to keep my occupied… I asked God to put a name in my head and I would pray for that person… then the wind picked up… 20 k, not bad with only the main up. I was not fighting the wheel and we were going 2k still.  Then the boat started acting funny. The wheel was turned all the way away into wind (we had 20k winds) and the boat was pulling away from wind! Strange.  Was the wing pushing the boat and the main sail was not big enough to pull us into wind?

Even though it was strange I liked the break.  There was no steering as the steering was useless. We were adrift. Moving out further and further.  Which was still fine by me. We were on a beam now sailing – drifting .1k. it did not accur to me that we had a lobster line on.. we were too far out!

At 2:30am I could not take the cold… well I could but why be that miserable when Ben is the “man” he doesn’t get freezing cold, he wanted to sail at night.  So I woke him up… “Ben, nothing is wrong , take your time, but can we switch?” He jumped out of bed got dressed and come out.  I asked him to check the batteries before coming and sure enough they were almost dead! So he started the engine. I slowly (like I always do) put her gently into gear and right away I heard a bang bang bang as a lobster buoy was getting wrapped around the propeller. I knew exactly what the first bang was and I slammed it back into neutral as fast as I could!

OHHH no! dark, raining, windy, and stuck to a lobster line and this time we might not have an engine to help us along at anytime and I kept thinking we need to be in port by a certain time and day.  The word “sea-tow” came into mind. But I was not sure what we had coverage (Ben says yes) and we were fine in the direction we were drifting. I had no idea we were caught.

At this time there was no way Ben was going in the water in the dark and 20k winds to unfowl or saw off the line that we thought was wrapped around. We drifted for a while and all the while we thought there has to be a way to get that off! The steering was stuck and could only turn it ¼ a turn.  I went back and forth and something gave way! The steering returned to it’s happy self.  And Cricket smiled as so did Ben and I.  We still think that there is a fowled line around the propeller but atleast we can sail.

We turned on the engine for batteries.  I went to the stern cabin so I could be close to Ben if he needed me. I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag which is rated for below 5 degrees! I was ok but my feet were still freezing and I could not sleep.  After 3 hours of tossing I got up out of there to make hot chocolate and eat something.

As I sat in the cockpit with hot chocolate I just stared out at the morning light. Thankful we could be on our way again.  Ben thought we should try the engine gear again cuz we have 30 miles to go and it is 6am we told the boatyard we would be there Friday am. We can’t get there sailing cuz of the wind direction – well we could be then it would be dark again before we got to the boatyard! I’m not doing that again!

Ben slowly put it in gear – waiting for something to happen – we don’t know what would happen but it started moving us and there were no big sounds. We took down the sail and started motoring as we got in 25 miles the lobster lines were everywhere but this time the tide and winds pulled down the buoys so you could not see them always.  Some would be under the water then pop up and surprise you then get pulled under again! Nerve racking. I motored from 6-8am and said “Tag your it. My brain hurts of lack of 2 days no sleep and squinting to try and go around all of these.”

We made it about noon. I’m sure we have fried our batteries. We are so glad we did not go off shore with out electrical as it was.

Ben and I went to town and ate at a nice tavern while sipping my cider ale I opened up the conversation and said,” I thought it would only take us till 7p. sorry. I should have told you I was in a hurry. I know it is insane to sail at night in maine! Now I have experienced something I should have known and did know but didn’t say anything … my bad!”  Ben to my surprise said, “that was crazy of me to think we should sail at night even out far! I’m sorry too.” We then went through the last 48 hours in detail. We laughed about how stupid that was and we were thankful we did not have to experience too much pain as a result of our decision. We both appreciated the fine display of bio-fosferences. I told him about my 3 friends the stars. We know we are better for it.  WE both are happy to be in port to get our electrical ripped out and put back in the right way!!!

Note from my first mate: “I would do this again … follow her out to sea if that is what she asked to do but I would sit behind the wheel and mumble to myself …of all the hair brain ideas…..”  ha ha ha I read Ben my first paragraph to this blog and he sillily said add this to the end as tongue and check since we know it was his hair brain idea that I hair-ily brainedly followed without any resistance. So really it was my hair brain idea too! I love my first mate!

One of the basic sailing lessons that we ignored was, you cant be on a schedule, we will get to rockland when we get there but we wanted to get there on a certain day. Ooppss

Smile Pam

Truly blessed