Blog 029 – Big Dreams On A Little Boat – Part I

As we are sitting here in the Bahamas watching the sunrise after a storm we began reflecting on how this all began. (Sorry we can’t get the pictures to upload this time).

So how do you wake up one morning and decide to sail around the world? I just saw a joke in a magazine that about sums up my understanding of cruising back then. Two friends are standing on the shore of a lake and one says to the other, I have an idea, let’s sell everything we have, buy a boat and sail around the world. The friend says, that sounds like fun but we will need to hurry up because my mom says I have to be home by 5:00.

Our journey started nearly 25 years ago when we were just newly married. My new brother-In-Law Gary was an avid sailor. He loved sailing and everything about messing around on old boats. He started sailing on Haden Lake in Idaho when he was a kid. His Dad was a doctor and they had a cabin right on the lake. Gary sailed his 17 foot boat every chance he got. Eventually they moved to sunny San Diego. He traded in the 17 foot for a 25 foot sailboat and that’s what he was sailing when we met. Gary’s little boat was a 1965 Coronado, she had a pretty blue hull with a white cabin top. The sails were hanked-on – no roller furling here and you could tighten the turn buckles by hand. It was the easiest boat I ever sailed – tiller steering, shallow draft, a little rocket ship. In fact, Rocket Ship was her name. She was born in the era of the race to the moon.

Gary loves to tinker and make things in his shop, so every detail of this boat had something special. From the way all of the navigation tools were mounted, to a piece of plexiglass with a special spot for everything, from dividers to parallel rulers. He made a special little shelf from wooden pin rail that was just as nautical as they come. He had an air horn with flames on the trumpets. Remember the muscle cars with flames like the Trans-Am? There was also a clear plexiglass sail angle indicator that is a work of art. I am especially fond of this hand-made instrument that teaches a sailor how to visualize the angle of the wind relative to the sailing vessel. He even installed port and starboard lights. Today it has a special place on the shelf of Silhouette. Since Gary and Chelo do not own a boat at the moment it is currently on loan to us. I hope someday we can bring it back to them as a boat warming gift. But for now we get to enjoy the glow of its red and green lights.

Gary’s sail wind indicator

Gary taught me everything I know about sailing. I became the deck hand and worked my way up to mate in a short time. Ok, that’s a spoof from Captain Ron. We were a good team and because our wives are sisters sailing was how we spent many weekends. Now my part of the team was the offshore navigation. Navigation was my job in the Navy, it’s all I did. This is how we had the confidence to venture offshore for the first time. We were enjoying a day of sailing and someone suggested Santa Catalina Island. This was a small island that sits off the coast of California just 70 some miles from San Diego. There was a three day weekend coming up and we would “buddy boat” with one of Gary’s friends in a trimaran. Our friend, Steve would sail with him, Sounds easy enough. We would all load up on Friday afternoon after we got off work and sail through the night to make Catalina by early Saturday morning. We would enjoy the island on Saturday and Sunday and sail back on Monday. This was quite an exciting plan for us. We prepared for the trip for a couple weeks and even did some sea trials to see how much fuel we would burn per hour. We thought the best plan was to carry enough gas for the whole trip-just in case. We all had jobs to get back to and so waiting for wind was not an option.

The Coronado had an old 9.9hp Johnson outboard and it was of questionable reliability. But we could always sail, right? We were full with fuel and even had extra jerry cans tied to the mast. Some of the extra plastic fuel jugs were not the dark red you might be used to. These were more of a faded pink from many years on deck basking in the hot California sun. We packed food and clothes into every little space we could find. The layout aboard a Coronado 25 is one small v-birth for two. Brush your teeth before you go to bed. Just aft of that a small closet with a curtain that had a hand pump marine head. Privacy, what privacy? On the starboard side was the dining area for four and the table made into a small double bed. The galley consisted of a small hand pump sink and a two burner camp stove. Under the sink was room enough for a few food stores. A ladder led up to the cockpit and on one side of it was a single sea birth. This sea birth we filled with all of our clothes. In the cockpit gauges were sparse, we had a compass and a knot meter. The cockpit had room enough for four adults and steering was a tiller.

At the last minute plans changed due to mechanical problems on the other boat. So Steve joined us on the Coronado. That makes five adults. Cozy. The sun was going down as we pulled the dock lines aboard and shoved off. We were so excited we could just feel it in the air. We were free, not just from the dock but from our children. This was a young parent getaway weekend. No responsibility, no running errands no soccer practice, no feeding all the barnyard animals, and no work. We were on an adventure. This lasted about 20 minutes and then reality set in. We had never sailed at night before and as we headed out through the breakwater, the waves swallowed up this overloaded little sailboat. Our stomachs sank a bit as her nose tucked into the first wave and water washed by the small companionway windows. These rollers were big. The famous words from Jaws came to mind, “I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
To be continued…