Christmas in Door County, WI

We went to Door County for the first time in years to experience a white Christmas. I hurried out with camera, before the light dusting disappeared, to find a suitable memory to record for the trip.

There’s something about a canoe’s sultry shape, frosted with snow, that appeals to the eye. As provocative a shape that can be imagined. As she lay there chilled in the grass, the silence of still water spoke to me of the past season…the many voyages that began just beyond this shore, now frozen, as “Tern” set sail unto the sparkling blue waters of Baileys Harbor and out into Lake Michigan.

It was a summer of recuperation following a spring of challenges. They have all been met, and Sue has fully recovered from her brush with mortality. The tonic of sailing was great consolation to memories of our trawler, lashed in her berth for the summer in steamy Florida, patiently awaiting our return in the fall.

And now we are back from the winter visit and “Susan Lee” is ready to go. If all goes according to expectations, we will head north along the west coast of Florida for a couple of weeks in early March in search of what’s left of “old Florida”. There are still some pleasant surprises to welcome the inquisitive sailor tucked among the waterfront condos, strip malls, and sunburned tourists that stretch from Clearwater to Naples. Fishing villages, pristine barrier islands, off-the-radar small funky towns, and sand strewn inlets that are best navigated by eye rather than electronics.

Happy New Year

New Courses, New Challenges

“SUSAN LEE”  photographed by Dave Powell

About the only thing that hasn’t changed since my last post in February is the name of this blog “CAPERBOAT”…  I think I will stick with it for now, as Sue and I have had enough changes for awhile.  Most of the changes to our lives have been positive, and, as usual, with a few difficulties thrown in.

Last summer, we chartered a trawler in the North Channel with Wisconsin friends, Al and Cynthia Johnson.  I was on assignment to do a cruising piece for PassageMaker, which will be published soon.

There is always a hidden cost in  anything to do with boating and this one will come as no surprise to many of you. While sitting in the flybridge while at anchor on a sunny afternoon in the Benjamin Islands, Sue said “Don’t you miss the breeze and the view from up here?”  How could I say no at a moment like that?  Well, six months later our lovely Mainship  Express 34 “CAPER” was sold and soon thereafter the Mainship 390 Trawler “SUSAN LEE’ was occupying our slip at the Bird Key Yacht Club.  She was built in 2003 and was in very good shape, but needed fine tuning to satisfy my usual boat fetish for perfection.  So the first six weeks of ownership resulted in substantial sums of effort (by experts) and cash (by me).

We finally got away on a ten day cruise of southwest Florida from our home in Sarasota, down as far as Ft. Meyers and back.  The boat performed beautifully despite a harrowing arrival at Useppa Island when the port shift cable broke while backing into a slip with a heavy cross wind. Over a full day was required to locate and install a new 34 foot cable that threaded through the boat, both vertically and horizontally.

While returning on the trip, Sue developed a swollen right leg.  She visited her internist who ordered a ultrasound to check for a blood clot.  Negative.  Next she sent Sue for ct scan of her abdomen.  There, lurking in the shadows, was a large mass that a subsequent biopsy confirmed as a GIST malignant tumor.  This is a relatively rare form of cancer and would require surgical removal.  As it turned out, it had nothing to do with the leg (which was caused by a cyst), but was fortunately found in time  for a successful operation; a complete removal with clear margins and further treatment unlikely. During her second day of surgical recovery her heart rate accelerated to over 250.  She was transported by ambulance to another hospital for a heart catherization and ablatement procedure to block the condition.

She has been resting at home since, getting stronger every day.  We almost went back down to the boat today, but decided to wait a few more days.  We most likely will not leave the slip with our lovely new boat before we return  to Wisconsin, looking forward to both summer,the fall and resuming our cruising aboard “SUSAN LEE.”

This most recent  journey has confirmed our lifelong practice of enjoying life to the fullest while the weather is fair.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In recognition of the eight month interval since my last post, I thought it fitting to look back in my photo archives.  This ancient hull lies along Highway A which roughly bisects Door County in a north-south direction.  She is a reminder of the maritime past of the peninsula, having served her masters for years in the early twentieth century; a time before the causeway was built connecting Cana Island to the mainland. The lighthouse keeper and his family used her to travel to and from Baileys Harbor to collect mail, supplies and maintenance items for the light.
Her name is no longer visible on her weather ravaged topsides, but even mother nature cannot totally destroy her handsome hull and deckhouse. Good looks sometimes actually improve with time.  This is a good example.  She might now be considered as outdoor sculpture contributing to the ambiance of the county. Long may she reign.

Since the last post on the site, Sue and I have been busy selling “CAPER” and replacing her with a 2003 Mainship 390 trawler, now named “SUSAN LEE”.  She is powered by a pair of 240 HP Yanmar diesels and can cruise comfortably at anywhere between 8 and 15 knots.  We leave in a couple of weeks for a couple of weeks cruising southwest Florida.  Look for updates soon.

A sailing photograph

photograph by Bob McCurdy

At last!  I have never had the opportunity to see TERN while under sail.  A couple of weeks ago I was sailing in Baileys Harbor when I saw my friend Bob McCurdy coming out of the marina and hoisting his sails.  I eased the sheets and headed in his direction.  As I passed by I hollered “Bob, if I toss you my camera can you get a few shots of my boat?”  “Sure can” he answered “but it sounds like an invitation for disaster.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hit you,” and I didn’t.

He got this perfect shot, including nice shadows showing the set of the sails.  She always has looked pretty to my eye while tied in the slip or sitting in the garage on her trailer for the winter.  Now I know she looks great under sail.  Thanks, Bob.

Under Sail in Wisconsin

May came and went in a flash this year.  After completing the organization and running of the Sarasota Bay Cup Regatta for Bird Key Yacht Club, Sue and I quickly packed and traveled to our summer house in Door County Wisconsin. With the help of internet radar and our trusty GPS we avoided some nasty spring storms in the mid-section of the country, and arrived safely on May 17th, just two weeks ago.

The weather, for this time of the year in northeastern Wisconsin, has been terrific.  Within two days of our arrival I had TERN in the water and ready to sail.  Many of you know that TERN is our Wisconsin boat, a lovely 19 foot Cape Dory Typhoon.  She was built in 1974 and over the last four years I have had her gone over thoroughly and she is totally refreshed.  She is an ideal daysailer for Lake Michigan as she can stand up to a breeze, which he have in abundance.  The photograph above was taken while single handing in a sunny northeaster a few days ago.  Not far off the bow is the original Baileys Harbor lighthouse.  It is no longer in use as a navigational aid but is kept up by her summer resident owners.  All that remains of her once bright candle powered fresnel lens is the remains of the brass armature, know locally as the “birdcage.”  This was my fifth sail of the season, and each one seems better than the last.

I have been reminded how easy it is to live with a boat in fresh water.  No more major cleanups after each use to scrub away the salt.  And better yet, not to be confronted out of my window each morning  with the troubled waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  May we all pray for a miracle to overcome the follies of man.

Been to long…and too damn busy

I’ve fallen into the world of small boats recently.  These two were entrants into the tenth annual Everglade Challenge. It’s a wild race for crazy people who race kayaks and small sailboats (a nine footer shown above) from St. Petersburg Fl down the west coast, around Naples, into the thin waters of the Everglades, across Florida Bay and finish in Key Largo….300 miles to be exact.  I covered the race for Small Craft Advisor, a magazine out of Port Townsend, Washington.

One guy I interviewed who won the race a couple of years ago said “I’ve raced all kinds of sailboats for years and won my share of races.  If you win a race, you might think about it a couple of weeks. If you win the Everglade Challenge, you remember it for life.”

The race is loosely organized and run by the WaterTribe.  Everyone races with a tribal name like Krank, Lugnut, Woodcutter, or Krunch.  The boss is, of course, Chief.  I took the name Cyclops as I spent much of my time looking through a single lens reflex digital camera. The race turned out to be windier than predicted with a number of capsizes, sinkings, and damaged  boats washed up on various beaches to be recovered by wives, friends or family.  The winning boat, a Toronado catamaran crewed by Bumpy and Machoman completed the race in 26 hours! Others took four and five days.

In all my years I have never seen anything quite like it, proving once again you never stop learning to sail.  I have had some other amazing experiences and finds in the small boat world so I will share a few more soon.

A blow….and a blast!

As CAPER tugged at her lines in the slip, I headed out of the harbor as a crew on MOONFLEET, a Bristol 41 owned by Bob Baime.

As we slipped below the Ringling Bridge, with the mast barely missing the 65 foot high span, we were greeted with a mighty wind, steady at about 20 knots with gusts into the low 30′s.  Perfect weather for a stout passegemaker like MOON FLEET.  We were coming out to race in the cruising sail boat racing series, run most Sundays by the Sarasota Sailing Squadron.  Only about 10 boats came out for the windy start, but the fact they were out there at all indicated they were comfortable and capable sailing in winds above twenty.

The race is run with a pursuit start, which means a boat of a certain rating starts at a specific time, giving a time allowance to various sizes and speeds of boats.  theoretically, all boats should then reach the finish line, some 12 miles and many marks later, at the same time.   It never works that way.  Being one of the largest we started later than all but one boat.  It was our job to pursue and catch up over the duration of the race.

Bob handles the helm as we blast past a competitor.

As we rounded the first mark after a short beat into the wind, we bore off on broad reach and increased our sail area until we were surfing down the waves at 8 knots plus.  That’s moving under sail in a big heavy hull. The crew worked hard to keep the boat from getting over powered in the gusts.  As we rounded the leeward mark, we shortened sail to accommodate the tremendous forces generated while going upwind.

We. along with others, had our moments, resulting in a tear in the mainsail and an unruly spinnaker pole which ran afoul of a genoa sheet while tacking. That was quite exciting.  But we sailed the boat well and as we rounded into the final leg of the race, we were lying fourth in the fleet.  We played the shifts just right and put away two of them by about two thirds of the way to the finish.  We dueled with our last remaining adversary coming into the finish, and thought we had him… but he crossed us and tacked across the line not ten feet in front us.  What a race.  both boats signaled each other for a job well done.

It’s been a long time since I stood in water rushing above my ankles grinding in a huge jib in twenty knots. What a blast!

A new “Widget”.

Happy New Year.

Sorry to bother you again  so soon, but if you look on the right hand panel you will see a widget to subscribe to the site.  I’m not sure if this will make it easier for you, but it will for me ,as you will automatically receive a notice of a new post in your e-mail.  I  think you will be able to link right to the site without bothering to google it.  I appreciate your interest in the site and hope to improve it as time goes on.  So here is a bit of boating “auld langsyne” for the season.

Boats, in their infinite variety, are beautiful.  Here is one of my favorites:

Yachts they are not, but two common boats moored in the fog can become things of beauty if the light is right.  A foggy morning settled on the Beaufort SC waterfront softening the harsh colors, and creating a scene worthy to be seen.  Sue and I spent days at this quaint town set among marsh grasses while cruising the eastern seaboard.  We did not want to leave and almost didn’t.

Blue Moon Rising

It’s early new year’s morning and the rain is falling steadily. But the night before last we rang out the old year at anchor along the beach at Lido Key. A break in the weather brought warm temperatures, light tropical breezes, and the rise of the blue moon.

It’s the first time we have had a blue moon (the second full moon in a month’s time) on New Year’s eve since 1990. We cheated a bit as the weather forecast correctly predicted a cloud cover in Sarasota on New Year’s itself, so the night before had to do.

With friends Jan and Paul and a bottle of champagne, we bid farewell to 2009 aboard CAPER and watched the moonrise to port and the sunset to starboard. The sandy bottom is steady at 20 feet plus almost to the beach because of the rapid tidal flow through Big Pass. It is a lovely place to anchor and watch the boats go by in the pass and the people grilling on shore not 50 yards away. As we enjoyed the early evening we were reminded of the forces of nature, and I could not help but think how impressive and predictable they are compared to the mayhem of man. With all of our accomplishments, our engineering, intelligence, and technology we can not match the serenity of nature.

So, we start a new decade with hope for a better world and a place for each of us to be fulfilled.

Happy New Year!

The Great Dinghy Dillema

In honor of the soon to be conclusion of the year 2009, I am happy to report that there is a resolution (for the time being) of one of my major challenges in boat ownership, that of finding a proper dinghy for the back of CAPER. The necessity for which is driven by the regular requirement to get Claire ashore for her frequent watering.

The search began last year.  I found what I thought to be the perfect solution: a brand new six-foot inflatable dinghy on closeout from West Marine.  The price was right, as the model had been  discontinued, and the length and weight would allow me to hoist to the cabin top of CAPER, where it would rest on its bottom lashed to the handrails, adding a note of adventure to the boat’s profile.

Upon its first inflation, its true proportions began to unfold.  A full third of its overall  length was given to the conical projection of the tubes beyond the transom.  The diameter of the tube took another sizable bite from the remaining space available for passengers and belongings.  Sue was instantly suspicious.  the final blow came when Claire and I boarded for our first trip aboard.  As we rowed away from CAPER, Sue, with a smirk on her face, said “Your dinghy is too small”.  Instantly I realized why this model had been discontinued.   You don’t want to hear this from your wife.  It was soon packed back in its nifty storage bag and subsequently shelved in storage.  It is still there should anyone be interested.

Early this year a good friend won a new inflatable dingy about nine feet in length in his yacht club’s annual fund-raiser.  Being an intelligent person, he wanted no part of a second boat.  His 38′ motorboat was commitment enough.  He told me about it, I went to look at it and again thought my problems were solved.  The design details of the dinghy mimicked those of the most expensive, although I had never heard of the brand.  I expressed my enthusiasm and he offered it to me for free.  I felt that this was too advantageous to me, so I offered him a token of what I thought was the value, which he graciously accepted.

It was acceptable in size and appearance to Sue and its color scheme fit  CAPER to a T.  After an initial sea trial I was convinced that the boat was perfect for our needs.  So now I had to have a motor. We happened to be off on a cruise, so I called a local West Marine dealer to ask if he had a TORQUEEDO in stock.  This, if you haven’t heard, is a compact electrical outboard motor that looks cool, uses no fuel, and stores in its own nifty storage bag.  He did not have one, but the economy being what it is, was not to miss out on a sale. He dispatched an employee to drive to another store two towns away, pick up a motor and deliver it to my boat, all in the space of an afternoon.

I enthusiastically assembled the motor, following the remarkably understandable instructions and inserted the start key.  No juice.  I called the dealer and arranged for its replacement and set off to shore with Claire rowing the dinghy.  The next morning I noticed sag marks in both tubes.  Not unusual, I thought, as the cool evening air effectively reduces the tube pressure.  So I added air to both tubes.  A short while later, as the moist Florida air began to heat up, I noticed both tubes sagging once more. As I searched for the source of the leak I noticed the “Made in Korea” legend stamped in the transom.  Further inspection uncovered major failures in the main seams of the fabric of both tubes.

I consulted a specialist in these matters and was told that this was a faulty boat, no longer being sold in the United States, and that its repair was economically out of the question.  After depositing the carcass in a dumpster, I now had my replacement motor with nothing to mount it on.

The word got around and soon another good friend offered me an ancient ACHILLES inflatable that had come with his boat when he purchased it years ago.  It has since sat under his workbench, and on rare occasions launched for an outing with family.  Since his wife had received a few cuts and bruises on a brief beach outing in the dinghy it has remained, loathed and unloved on the garage floor. I went to his house on what I considered a rescue mission, as said dinghy is of impeccable credentials.  After an inspection I again made a token offer, which was politely refused.  I had no alternative but to drive away with the dinghy in the back of the SUV scot free.

We just returned from a four day cruise after having the floorboards re-varnished, giving the tubes a thorough cleaning, and fitting the proper attachments to CAPER to carry the dinghy on the swim platform.  We spent three nights at the docks at St.Petersburg Yacht Club (which are primarily designed for much larger boats than ours) and made ample use of the dinghy and motor to get Claire and Sue to high ground at low tide.

So at the conclusion of the year, it looks as if the dilemma may be resolved, at least for the time being.  And one of the major nautical questions “Can you own too many boats?” has been answered. “Never.”

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Bill