New to the board...northern chesapeake.

[cats..paw]

Hi, I'm Kit.
My wife and I currently sail our second Searunner 31 tri in the Chesapeake.
This is a great forum, with all of the responses from practicing sailers. I've been reading and learning for a while, here, and decided to add my 2 pennies worth in a new post on the Largest Wave thread.
Travel well.

[Hud3]

Welcome, Kit!

Good to have you here. Hope you enjoy the experience!

[cats..paw]

Thanks Hud3,
Glad to be here.
Are you currently in Nevis? We've visited by air a couple of times, though not in a few years.
Kit

[Hud3]

Yep, we sold the house on the Chesapeake and moved down here a couple of years ago. We had spent a couple of winters cruising the Lesser Antilles, and succumbed to the charms of Nevis. Decided we'd try something different before we got too old!

[cats..paw]

What a fine swap.
Good sailing all around you.

[AnchorageGuy]

Welcome to the board. We spent a lot of years sailing the Chesapeake before we got tired of the winters and moved permanently south.

[cats..paw]

Thanks for the welcome, Chuck.

The challenge here for the last 10 days has been an early heat wave, though fortunately it breaks tomorrow.

You're right about winter: better to go South.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by cats..paw

Hi, I'm Kit.
My wife and I currently sail our second Searunner 31 tri in the Chesapeake.

I hope you'll be adding to the Searunner thread when you feel the urge

[cats..paw]

Hi Maren,
It's been good to see some avid searunner folks on this forum.
I posted a piece about big seas and parachutes on the 'biggest wave' thread. Maybe it belongs somewhere else.
For what it's worth, I'll repeat it here:


Early November 1992. Steering 120* mag from Norfolk, bound for Virgin Islands in a Searunner 31 tri. We stepped into a worsening 5-day storm, first kicking up the Gulf Stream with opposing winds. Then clocking around blowing harder and harder, leading to 45kn winds steady plus strong gusts, and a whole lot of fetch. Seas: 30 feet, maybe a bit more. 6 foot breakers crisscrossing from 2 directions.

We deployed a 16 foot parachute anchor twice, the first time for 20 hours. The parachute was payed out so it lay in the next crest as we topped ours, and that required 400 feet of rode plus the chute leader plus 70 feet of bridle.

Sweet it was on that chute, riding like a duck on an elevator. The board was up and the rudder tied off so we couldn't back down on it, and the GPS told us that we only lost 2.2 nm in that time. The bridle was led through a pair of big snatch blocks on the ama bow bridle plates, a la Jim Brown. So we pulled them in two feet every couple of hours to adjust any bridle chafe.

We had no windlass, so when the winds dropped down to 25kn we retrieved the whole rig using two winches in series. At the time, it seemed like a whole lot of retrieving, but we'd gotten some rest and could proceed: just keep sailing the boat.



Cheers.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Kit,
Welcome aboard! It appears you've found other avid Searunner Captains to share stories with. Good to have you and your experience here on the forum.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[cats..paw]

Thanks SkiprJohn,

There are a lot of interesting ideas flying around this forum.

I see you're from the big island. Never made it there myself, but I know a couple of artists who paint on Maui. I'd sure like to pay a visit one day.

Cheers,
Kit.