2000 Thursday, June 30
Who you sail with makes all the difference in the world. When I was about 25 years old I anxious to do a little more blue water sailing. I looked about for an opportunity to gain more experience and enjoy the unique challenge and camaraderie of an offshore passage. I found a berth on a 47-foot boat sailing from Vilamoura in southern Portugal to Tenerife in the Canary Islands off of Africa and from there on to Antigua in the Caribbean. There were five of us aboard including the Captain/Owner. We stood one man watches for the voyage. The captain was incompetent to the point of dangerous. He did two uncontrolled jibes in strong, gusty trade winds after taking the preventer off the boom. The first saw the compass on the steering pedestal ripped off the mounts by the slack main sheet; thankfully it was the binnacle, not somebody's head. The second jibe saw the boom swing so hard across the boat that it broke the stainless steel beckets off the boom and produced a tear through the center of the mainsail from leach to luff, effectively tearing it in to. I would spend two days with a sailor's palm, wax, needle and twine using a herringbone stitch to repair the sail. He drained one tank of water into the bilge and the other had over a gallon of bleach poured into it. Food ran low as the captain horded it. He took a hacksaw to the single-sideband radio telephone cutting us off from the world. The list goes on. Tensions rose; I recall a night where myself and another young crew member pulled men apart in the throws of fierce squalls and lightening on a pitch black night. One morning another crew member came to find me on deck during my pre dawn watch. He wanted me to talk him out of simply pushing the Captain overboard to be done with him and his threats to the voyage and our survival. I did talk him out of it. We reached Antigua with no water, little food and one can of soda left. Another day or two in the tropical heat and crew would have started collapsing.
Needless to say, ever since, I have been very careful about who I choose to go to sea with. Today I dropped Carl Doane and Greg Bover off at the St. John's Airport for their delayed flights back to the United States. They were the best of shipmates on our 1,000 mile sail up from Manchester, MA to Newfoundland. These are two fine sailors I would go anywhere with. I will miss their companionship as I wait for my next crew member to arrive. If you see Carl or Greg, let them know how happy I have been to sail with them. Good shipmates! I think carefully about who I sail with.
On another note, Jesse, the mechanic, is working late at this hour on Tazzarin's engine. I hope to have more news on that front in the coming days. My thanks to all of you who have been in touch with me over the past few days.
Bill
