Leaving on a Friday

[ThereAndBack]

Sailing - 99% boredom and 1% holy ****

Gather round barnacles. I have a tale to tell. Sailing isn't always great and I like to share both sides.

Did you know that sailors consider it back luck to start a journey on Friday? It was my own hubris to conveniently forget this. You see, working while cruising/sailing leads to a lot of timing constraints. Weather windows don't always line up with mother nature, and I can tell you, she is the boss. So anyway, because the weather was right I was going to head out of Charleston on a Friday and make for a Class A port somewhere in FL so I could be ready for work on Monday.

After work, I go to pull up the anchor and we pull in less than half the chain we have out but it won't come up any more. We're fouled. I tried doing circles, running a kellet and loop down the line to trip the anchor, etc. Nothing worked. Called a diver and told them what was up. He told me.... There is a little known "dirty secret" that Charleston has a pipeline from their waste water treatment plant that pumps right out into the Ashley river and I was right on top of it. So there I am, literally chained to the ****. This pipeline is on the chart, but my chart must be wrong because I was supposedly 100s of yards away from it.

Anyway, I got lucky because a local West Marine had an anchor and chain that are suitable for my boat. It cost me all Friday night and Saturday morning to get that anchor and chain to the boat and get it rigged. So I figure, we'll head out, the weather is predicted to be fair, we won't get as far but we'll make some tracks south.

It was an eerie feeling letting go of the bitter end of the old chain and coming free. Fair well old anchor, we hardly knew ye. After having "slipped" for the first time in my life, we made our way out into the Atlantic and proceeded to motor south. There was no wind.

All day we motor south and as night falls, rain fills in, the temperature drops, and a nasty breeze sets in from the south west. It is blowing 20kts pretty quick and kicking up a bad chop. I've got foulies on in the cockpit, running hard south. The weather deteriorates to the point that my dog is losing her mind and it is cold. 50f in 20kts of breeze with salt spray is bitter. I send my mate and the dog to the berth and stand watch. As total darkness falls, the starboard engine fails...

Because fate is harsh, this coincides with our arrival at the Savannah mooring field where they moor huge ships out in the ocean. So in the blinding wind and spray I have to navigate this fresh hell on my one engine and the boat bouncing around like a mad house. I remember laughing at myself in the middle of the night. I made steady rounds of the boat to make sure nothing else was going wrong. Most disasters at sea are a chain of events and not one tragedy. I was dangerously close to crossing the threshold where things get out of hand.

I stood on watch for over 12 hours. Not wanting to let my girlfriend (who is not as salty as I am) up out of the boat in this weather. It was dangerous without clipping in. So I laid on the cockpit floor in short spurts with an alarm sounding every few minutes so I could check everything. I stood on until morning.

Luckily the port side motor carried on and with morning I was able to set sails and we made it into the St. Mary river to anchor (with our brand new anchor) right alongside Cumberland Island. I was completely wiped out by this point. I took a shower, checked my email. I found that over the weekend a jurisdiction in NC is trying to bill me for personal property tax on my boat (they are in error). Westmarine double billed me for the anchor and chain. 6k instead of 3k.

I vowed not to depart on Friday again. And stay away from hidden underground sewage pipelines.

In the end, no one got hurt and we'll fix all that is awry. But whatever you do, don't leave on a Friday.

[Wyo George]

Meh, I’m not even slightly superstitious and I work a lot so I leave whatever day is available.

I’m glad you’re safe and the problems can all be solved. Enjoy the trip.

[ThereAndBack]

Originally Posted by Wyo George

Meh, I’m not even slightly superstitious and I work a lot so I leave whatever day is available.

I’m glad you’re safe and the problems can all be solved. Enjoy the trip.

I agree, was written mostly for humor.

[ChrisJHC]

According to the classic book “Two Years Before the Mast”, a lot of trading ships used to leave on a Sunday.
The reason was that sailors were required to have a rest day on Sundays, unless they were required to actually work the ship.
By leaving on a Sunday, the crew were required to work all day and the owners didn’t have to pay them for a rest day.

[JoeRobertJr]

Thanks for sharing your story!
It has me wondering about leaving on a Friday with bananas on board. Does that double one's bad luck, or is it like flipping the luck switch back to the good luck setting?

[kayakerChuck]

Leave on a Friday, with your lass?

I hope you also had a good stock of bananas.


Thanks for sharing!