Paper charts and memories

[keepondancin]

After a long troubled year, having lost my mate/wife/cruising partner on January 2 this year, I am cleaning out stuff. Renting the house for a short term, going back to Florida for some warmth and sun, then, hopefully back on the boat in the spring. All is good now. I came across all our Caribbean paper charts from our 10 years in the Caribbean. This was from when you actually had to navigate, keep running plots and positions, use parallel rules, dividers and a pencil compass. On this rainy icy day in New York State, it was great to look over the charts, remembering when, what, why and how. The near miss of Mama Rhoda Rock at night in the Bahamas, the plot trying to enter the Mona Passage on our way from the Turks and Caicos, to be told by Herb Hildenberg that it was unsafe, and the run back to Luperon. The couple of trips across the Caribbean rather than island hoping, the slow trip to Trinidad from Puerta La Cruz, how much you can get set when dashing back and forth between Trinidad and Grenada. Water and coffee stains, a spot of blood from whatever happened that night. Great memories, sure can't do that with a chart plotter. To bad there is so much missing from the art of sailing.

[Cheechako]

Yeah... one chart on my wall has a bunch of pencil stuff on it too. Good memories...

[JPA Cate]

keepondancin'

...and the youngies'll never know, never feel those feelings, based on a chart....

[Stu Jackson]

Nice post, the title sounds like a Jim Croce song title.

I use tracks on our GPS, save them separately and print them out in our log book. Consider it a transferred technology concept.

No bloodstains, though.

[Hudson Force]

'reminds me of a pair of cut-off shorts I had kept from first crossing to the Bahamas in '75. When I was taking bearings with my RDF I would write the numbers on my shorts before going below to plot our position. These were fond memories, but polishing rags many years ago!

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

'reminds me of a pair of cut-off shorts I had kept from first crossing to the Bahamas in '75. When I was taking bearings with my RDF I would write the numbers on my shorts before going below to plot our position. These were fond memories, but polishing rags many years ago!

Nice story, Hudson.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by keepondancin

After a long troubled year, having lost my mate/wife/cruising partner on January 2 this year, I am cleaning out stuff. Renting the house for a short term, going back to Florida for some warmth and sun, then, hopefully back on the boat in the spring. All is good now. I came across all our Caribbean paper charts from our 10 years in the Caribbean. This was from when you actually had to navigate, keep running plots and positions, use parallel rules, dividers and a pencil compass. On this rainy icy day in New York State, it was great to look over the charts, remembering when, what, why and how. The near miss of Mama Rhoda Rock at night in the Bahamas, the plot trying to enter the Mona Passage on our way from the Turks and Caicos, to be told by Herb Hildenberg that it was unsafe, and the run back to Luperon. The couple of trips across the Caribbean rather than island hoping, the slow trip to Trinidad from Puerta La Cruz, how much you can get set when dashing back and forth between Trinidad and Grenada. Water and coffee stains, a spot of blood from whatever happened that night. Great memories, sure can't do that with a chart plotter. To bad there is so much missing from the art of sailing.

Yes fond memories when a bit of skill was required and when you finally were safely anchored in the place where you intended to go a great sense of satisfaction and relief.

As for Mama Rhoda Rock I have memories of my first trip to the Bahamas and trying to make Chubb Cay. Luckily there was a Bahamian fishing boat there and I asked them if I was on the right course for Chubb. They said yes and I kept going. 10 minutes later they came by me and and asked my draft. I told them 5 1/2' and then they said you can't make Chubb going the way I was going. I had to head SW a fair bit as I had been swept way east and would have ended up aground inside Mama Rhoda Rock.

[Jason Flare]

I remember writing TVMDC in pencil on my gel-coat.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Jason Flare

I remember writing TVMDC in pencil on my gel-coat.

There's a mnemonic out of the past that has pretty much been swallowed up by the computer age.

[anacapaisland42]

I framed one of ours, next time I'll frame it with a photo in a spare space and a suitable quote in another space.
Great memories, to be enjoyed/shared with a glass of rum and suitable CD.

[MarkJ]

You can take a photo of the chart with your iPhone and SnapChat will send it to all your contacts where its viewable for 6 seconds. Unless they hold their finger on it....

Thats how the kids send nude photos of themselves.



I guess I am somewhere in between


Glad you've kept your memories

[southpaw]

I used to be an Admiralty chart corrector for Trans Pacific Marine in Auckland, NZ. Elegant handwriting was a requirement for the job. The corrections were applied.with a Rotring Isograph pen; it took about 2 1/2 days a week to update the entire inventory.
When we left again for the islands in 1987 I was 5 months pregnant, so one of our charts still has a morning sickness stain (sorry guys). Happy memories indeed...

[ka4wja]

keepondancin,
Nice posting....thank you for this!!

FYI, on my latest Atlantic crossing (2007), I used the same "120" chart (N. Atlantic, southern sheet), that I used 30 years earlier on my first Atlantic crossing!!!
A few stains, but perfectly usable!!
Old positions that weren't completely erased still shown, but were from celestial fixes not GPS...


And, hanging on the wall just 20 feet from me now, is the old "120" chart that my Mom and Dad used on their first Atlantic crossing, many years ago...
A couple faint stains, and celestial plots, and some scribbles....(my 93.5 yr old Mom still stops and looks at it sometimes as she's doing things around the house...)
And, she's gotten out old log books from the 60's and read stories to me, just like back then....


Oh, we've also got a photo on the wall, of me hanging off an anchor line from the bow of out boat, with the bow nudged up to the beach of Peter Island, BVI....tied off to palm trees....
We sat tied-off like that for days at a time, and never another sole to be seen / heard, sometimes for a week or more!!
The only way we knew the rest of the world existed was from the lights of Tortola in the distance at night and the BBC on the shortwave....
Before you throw out the "BS" card on this....I should say that this was in 1965 - 1967.....'ya know, a couple decades BB ("Before Bareboats")....and WAY before the resort was built!!




On a side note, it's been over 8 years now that I lost my longtime girlfriend, traveling/sailing partner....and I still remember the first offshore sail she experienced, we delivered a boat from the ABC's (Bonaire) to Ft. Lauderdale, stopping in Provo and Bahamas for fun....
I'm sure she's there with yours, looking over our shoulders as we gaze at our charts....



Fair winds my friend!!

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[keepondancin]

"On a side note, it's been over 8 years now that I lost my longtime girlfriend, traveling/sailing partner....and I still remember the first offshore sail she experienced, we delivered a boat from the ABC's (Bonaire) to Ft. Lauderdale, stopping in Provo and Bahamas for fun....
I'm sure she's there with yours, looking over our shoulders as we gaze at our charts...".

Thanks John,

A lot of the plots and small notations are in Carol's handwriting. It's all good memories. They are probably saying the same thing we are, "Hey, let's do it all again..."

Peace my friends

[Jim Cate]

G'Day all,

We too have old charts with coffee stains and celestial fixes imprinted forever. They always bring a smile...

Another means: Our first Aussie friends, who we met in Tahiti-Iti a long time ago, made a tablecloth out of cheap muslin, and used it whenever they had guests aboard (like us). After eating and clearing the table, they handed out some marker pens and invited everyone to make an "entry" into this "guest log". Folks did all sorts of things there... logos, names, ship names, rude comments, compliments to the cook... they are all still there amongst the spaghetti sauce stains. When we visit them now (they've swallowed the anchor after their circumnavigation) they bring it out and we reminisce about good times long ago. A great idea!

On our cruises, I've kept a combination ships log and personal journal. All sorts of stuff in there... and the stack of hard bound ledgers that I've used is well over a foot high now. I browse through them sometimes, and wouldn't trade them for any blog or spreadsheet kinda thing. One thing I have computerized: I try to make notes of names and boat names/types of folks we have interacted with more than casually along the way. Very useful when you re-encounter them later. But after a few years it became too difficult to find the pertinent entry, so I did make a data base to copy these items into. Nearly two thousand boats in it now, and when we see a familiar looking vessel coming into an anchorage I can quickly find out if we've actually met/known them and what their names are. It always makes folks smile when you remember (!) them.

Cheers,

Jim