~ We had. too. much sail up; ‘for sure. ‘That v was the first mistake.:But several other things happened

on Sunday. which, -in. the spirit of safe the enter I

coe

| er For: you, at Teast!

“Tt was a beautiful sunny morning when we left. The wind t was light, the sea

' smooth. There were many

other boats around, and as we. had no intentions of staying out very long I did

_ not listen. very. carefully to ‘the —

weather |

forecast. ‘Another mistake.

We ‘motored ‘out to

Passage-Island, where there

was enough light breeze to

coast us along at about two

knots. Down in-the galley Mary.made a pot of coffee, and the kids played on the floor with their colouring books. She opened the new windows in the front of the

deck-house. - That was another mistake. Kim was steering. After he .

shut -the engine and the blowers off it was pleasantly quiet. I went around the deck setting the genoa up for the light breeze. As I was adjusting the downhaul on the mainsail I saw a dark patch coming over the

from the west: Kim | seen

north shore

news

. CIRCULATION 986-1337

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent community newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Part 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax t, ta published each

Sunday by the North Shore Free Prean Ltd and

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it too, anid by the time that I

got back into the nieeea he was preparing to t. the -. boat up into the

But it wasn’t just a gust, it was a big wind. As the wind

hit us the:boat heeled over

and we acce! through

- the water. The speedometer

hit six knots and what had

been peaceful, sunny, light-

air sailing turned into a pounding, . - wet, smashing drive through the ocean. The waves came up im- mediately.

I heard the familiar noise of the coffee pot falling over

and plates crashing to the

floor, but I was too busy on deck. I had smooth-soled deck shoes on, which are fine in dry conditions, but as soon as the bow tucked into the first sea the entire deck area was wet and I was suddenly skating around. It

was another e to wear

“smooth-soled shoes. After I

changed into iny sea boots I felt much more secure on deck. ¢

Mary came to the com-_

panion way. Her face was green. “I'm sorry.” she said, “Tve got the barfies.” She handed me a safety harness. “You'd better use this.” The harness was tangle of webbing and line, and I swore at it before I had it on. Kim was heading up into bigger gusts, which was causing the main sail to flap |

furiously in the puffs. Up- (

above us a batten broke.

Loed

: ‘I went out on deck to

the genoa. With the shackle of the safety harncss at- tached to a strong point I felt even more secure. The boat was laid over with the tocrail in the water, and I could hear the hydraulic stecring groan with the strain on the rudder. We were now driving through the water at six and a half knots.

A wave washed over my boots and up through those open deck-house windows, and ai lot of scawater tumbled through and into the interior of the vessel. I got the genoa down and secured, and Kim paid the boat off the wind. We reached into the channel between Passage Island and Bowen Island and things became much more stable. Under main and stayszail only we were still doing over six knots. 4

With things on deck more under control, I went back into the wheclhouse and down below to survey the damage. It was a disaster. The floor was a mass of soggy colouring books, crayons, scawater and coffee

ounds. In the foc’sle the

age children huddled. Just as I got there the baby vomited. He's been sailing since before he was born, but he still gets seasick. The

lite girls s shrieked. “Come

quick, Peter, John’s

fing!” By the time I got there with a bucket-and a wash Cloth John -had redecorated... the inside of the foc’sle, his coat, a sleeping bag and a blanket, and the two girls _were holding their hands. over. their mouths and —

looki And by the

time I finished cleaning up

the mess, I was feeling too. I opened the foredeck hatch for some frésh air.

Inside the head, Mary

crouched in misery. When . she came back. out again, it .

was only to make a bee- for one of the settee berths.

She lay there in ashen-faced

muscry. .

Heinz. -Gritzas, of A-1i Canvas, had just make us new bunk-cloths, canvas contraptions that people in their berths under rough sea conditions. I

pulled hers out from un-—

derneath the settee mattress

over Mary. It was all I could to for her in her misery. After I cleaned up John I put him in the other settee berth, then got the girls interested in something and began to clean up the debris off the floor. By the time that I was

finished with the mess and.

back in the cockpit we were in the lee of Bowen Island, and right back into the calm silent. sunny sailing con- ditions that we had left earlier. The coffee pot survived, and over coffee Kim and I re-capped the Situation and discussed our mistakes.

Back on deck, I put the genoa up again. The big sail flapped in the light air, and I unhooked a whisker pole and manocuvered it around in order to hold out the sail

to its best advantage in the- light air. I was struggling it -

across the deck trying to clear the staysail stay when I fell into the hatch. That was another mistake. For- tunately, the whisker pole bridged across between the staysail boom and the life lines, and I only fell a couple of feet and hung suspended in the air, but it could have been a lot worse. When I got back out of the hatch? I wedged the whisker pole into what I thought was a safe location while I put the hatch cover back on.

That was a mistake too. The boat gave a little lurch, and so did I, my knee

‘nudged the end of the

’ overboard like a

whisker pole, and it slide cil out of ones’ pocket. I've heard and experienced this before, but as I watch the pole slide

- into the sca I had time for a

lot of thoughts.

Even as I was watching my body move towards the end of the pole, 1 remember thinking that the pole cost $300, and I knew when I wedged it in the deck

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