Wisdom of the Seas

[Mike OReilly]

Another lesson my partner and I have learned is to listen to each other when it comes to hard decisions. When faced with a choice about taking on a hard passage, we both need to be in agreement. If either of us says "no," then we stay.

[JPA Cate]

Words for the navigator of Beth, courtesy Fred Boehm, "Charts are for dreaming...Eyeballs are for navigation."

Ann

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Words for the navigator of Beth, courtesy Fred Boehm, "Charts are for dreaming...Eyeballs are for navigation."

Ann

Very good Ann. I should probably stick those in brass above the desk!

[boatman61]

If your going to abandon your boat... open all the valves and cut the hose's else you'll get slaughtered on CF...

Or is that under 'Wisdom of the Internet'..

[VirtualVagabond]

This wisdom is hard to beat...

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.


Vic

[cheoah]

Originally Posted by boatman61

If your going to abandon your boat... open all the valves and cut the hose's else you'll get slaughtered on CF...

Or is that under 'Wisdom of the Internet'..

That's pretty funny. Might as well go down with the ship, too, if forum approval is important.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Most bad decisions happen before leaving port.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Most bad decisions happen before leaving port.

Aint that the truth...

[captain58sailin]

The most dangerous thing on a boat is the owner.

[s/v Beth]

I need additional info on that one 58. What makes the owner (me) the most dangerous thing on the boat?
Other than leaving wrong, not preparing enough, what other bad decisions are made in port?
Inquiring minds want to know!!

[JPA Cate]

He didn't mean you Newt, he meant the guys that do really dumb things that endanger others. It's a warning to maintain eternal vigilance, because assuming someone else will do the right things can get you and/or your boat hurt.

Ann

[IdoraKeeper]

The skipper must never assume, he must know. Case in point, I was standing on the dock in Roche Harbor watching a skipper back his classic Ingrid into a tight slip against wind and current. Against all odds he did an excellent job and placed the boat perfectly so the crew could simply step off and make fast. He assumed that what would come next would be as obvious to the crew as it was to him.No one stepped off on to the pier at all. The guy at the bow even handed his line to a young girl who was standing on the dock who also did nothing. Consequently the tide and the wind drifted them out of the slip and they impacted several small boats before beginning control of the vessel. Failure to communicate turned a fine example of yacht handling into an embarrassing the fiasco.

[Mary Flower]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly
"For me, sailing Lake Superior, it's the sea state that is the real challenge."

Before I began sailing in earnest, I was of the impression that waves on the ocean and waves on the Great Lakes had pretty much the same characteristics. But because fresh water is less dense than salt water, fresh water waves are much shorter and steeper; a lesson that was rammed home to me on a stormy late September night on Lake Huron the first year we had our boat.

A ten foot ocean wave tends to be longer with more of a rolling motion. A ten foot wave on the lakes will smack you around like a cork in a toilet. Mercifully, the conditions necessary to produce large waves on the Great Lakes are rarely present between April and early October - the sailing season for most Great Lakes sailors.

Lake Superior is most likely to produce conditions for large waves because of its size and because it is oriented west to east. A strong, late fall or winter cold front with its northwest wind flow has a fetch of almost 300 miles to work with and can, and often does, produce 20 foot waves toward the eastern end of the lake. Those were the conditions on the night the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost.

When we sold our boat in 1995, the new owner took it to Lake Superior. I'll admit that I offered a little prayer for his well-being.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Mary Flower

Before I began sailing in earnest, I was of the impression that waves on the ocean and waves on the Great Lakes had pretty much the same characteristics.

We get a fair few folks in the US who are starting out with boats (or a dream!) and mention stuff like they are "only" near a lake (and a squillion miles from the sea).......although I have very limited lake sailing experience (ok, one afternoon! - Lake Taupo, NZ) nonetheless I do try and explain that sailing on a lake teaches as much about sailing as on the sea - except a lake has a few of it's own special ways to drown ya! (as has the sea!).......and that it certainly is "proper" sailing.....just got to learn the quirks of each.

[Mary Flower]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

We get a fair few folks in the US who are starting out with boats (or a dream!) and mention stuff like they are "only" near a lake (and a squillion miles from the sea).......although I have very limited lake sailing experience (ok, one afternoon! - Lake Taupo, NZ) nonetheless I do try and explain that sailing on a lake teaches as much about sailing as on the sea - except a lake has a few of it's own special ways to drown ya! (as has the sea!).......and that it certainly is "proper" sailing.....just got to learn the quirks of each.

They don't call them the "Great" Lakes for nothing.

"Yachtsman Ted Turner once made an offhand remark about sailing on "mill ponds" before embarking on his first Chicago-Mackinac race (on Lake Michigan). He was rewarded for this comment when his boat was dismasted in a sudden storm. Not many things can humble Ted Turner."

"That storm, a northerly gale, knocked 45 on the nose for 16 hours, at night exceeding 60 mph and out of 167 starters, 88 withdrew."