"Virgin Voyage Hijinks" or "The Portable Mooring"

[Joe L.]

Well, my wife and I took bob out for the first time by ourselves Saturday morning. Our maiden voyage was to be a short one from the Bristol Town Dock to our mooring, which was installed Thursday. Being in a slip in a row of narrow docks and reading warnings on this board about the difficulty (or impossibility) of backing-up a CD25, I was a little nervous about getting bob out of the slip without banging it around. I decided against trying to motor backwards out of the slip, so with the motor running in idle and my wife aboard and our little Walker Bay tied to the back of bob, I pushed the boat back by hand out of the slip and turned it facing the exit. I then jumped aboard and put the motor in gear and we were off for the first time in our new boat. My first challenge was making a hard right between two piers to get out of the town dock. That was accomplished and we were off. My next challenge was to not run into this huge wood tall ship that was sitting right outside of the town dock raising it sails.

Feeling pretty good about my natural navigating abilities after getting out of the docking area and not ramming the tall ship, we settled back for our little cruise of a couple of hundred yards to our new mooring. I asked my wife if she wanted to go out in the bay first and motor around a bit, she declined saying we shouldn't wear the motor out, it was a sailboat after all. I think she thought a couple hundred yards on the first day was enough. Even thought the motor was purring along, it was probably a good idea not to go out motoring around anyway since the performance of the motor is still unknown to us and we didn't have any sails onboard had something happened to the motor (not that we'd know what to do with sails if we had 'em - did I mention that we're new to this?).

So we head for the moorings and pick ours out. I mentioned to my wife that it looked like it was a lot closer to the shore than I remembered it being when I went with the guy to dump it in the water. Oh well, I shrugged that thought off thinking it must look different since we were out on our boat and it was broad daylight instead of late evening as it was when I went with the guy that dumped it in - oh well, I told my wife that it was good that it was so close to the shore - less rowing in the dinghy!

I also noticed that there was another mooring about 30 feet away from ours - I shrugged that off too, thinking that everyone is installing new moorings and someone dumped there stuff and is going to put it in it's proper spot soon. I know it makes no since now, but what did I know. After all, I paid an official mooring guy off the official mooring list published and distributed by the Bristol Harbor Master a rather large official chunk of change in order to have my mooring officially installed and inspected by an official mooring guy off the official mooring guy list - how could anything possibly be wrong with my mooring.

After making four missed approaches, my wife finally grabbed the pick-up buoy and I carefully placed the pennant on my boat and carefully tied it down with the pennant rope so it would not pop off the cleat and drift to France. After taking care of a few details, my wife and I get into our little Walker Bay (a long story in itself) and rowed to the nearby shore (another long story in itself). To see bob from the shore, we had to look around the corner of a wall. I again mentioned to my wife that he sure looked closed than I remembered before, in fact, he even looked closer than when we were on it 10 minutes earlier. Oh, well, shrugged it off as an illusion, after all... the official mooring guy and all.

I walked to the town dock to get our truck to pick up the dinghy and when I get back to my wife and the dinghy, she runs up and tells me that some people next door told her that our boat is drifting across the bay towards their dock. We jump back into the dinghy (another story in itself) and after rocking and swaying and pushing and sweating and cursing, we get the dinghy off the bottom and float it out back into the bay. After rowing for what seemed like hours (by the way, I've found that no matter how close to the shore your boat is, it is never close when you are rowing an 8 foot dinghy), we reached bob, who is now bobbing up and down against the barnacle covered piers of a dock about twenty feet offshore. I get into the boat from the dinghy (there are now about 3 feet of very choppy waves) and after many failed and aborted attempts, my wife makes it on board also (another very long story in itself). I start the motor and try to slowly motor off the pier. We moved a couple of feet forward and the bow of the boat, which had been shaving barnacles, is now clear of its post and begins to swing right and the boat begins to go under the pier, which is about 10 feet off the surface of the water at this point. The people on the pier all run over to get ready to try and keep the boat from going under the pier as I reach back and throw the motor in reverse and give it full power. At first the motor kicked forward and I thought it was going to come out of the bin and end up in the boat with us, but once it stabilized, the boat slowly came to a stop and then began to creep backwards. Then, to my surprise (after what I've read on the board regarding backing-up a CD25, the boat began to move swiftly in reverse (FYI - a CD25 with an 8 h.p. Johnson Sailmaster will back-up very nicely!). Happy to be away from the pier, I was feeling a little relief when a guy from the pier yells out to me and tells me that I'm getting into some mighty shallow water. I looked back and saw that I was about 10 feet from the shore and I could clearly see the bottom just a few feet below my stern. I powered down and quickly threw the motor into the forward gear. The motor hadn't quite made it to idle yet and again, with the sudden switch from forward to reverse, I thought that it was going to join us in the cockpit. But the motor again stabilized and the boat stopped drifting backwards and began to inch forward, but now back toward the pier. I new that I needed to pick up some speed for my rudder to become effective, but my instincts told me "pick up speed and boat will ram pier causing much scratches." As I slowly drifted back toward the pier, a guy, who'd obviously done this more than me (which was once) yelled at me to give that thing some gas so I could steer it. I reluctantly gave it almost full power and moved the tiller as far as I thought I could without stalling it out. To everyone's relief, bob's bow began to swiftly turn to the left (I'll use fancy seaman words like "port" when I can keep my boat from tunneling under piers) away from the pier.

I saw that I was going to cross directly between my portable buoy and the pick-up buoy, but I had no choice. So as the motor approached the rope that attached the pick-up buoy and the main buoy, I reached down and kicked it into neutral - hoping that it would clear the rope. Much to my relief, the motor glided past the rope without snagging it. I kicked it back in gear and, after much waives and shouts of thanks to the people who so desperately saved bob from impending doom (translated - the people who saved their pier), we were again headed out to the open waters of the bay.

I made it back to the town dock, motored in to a slip that the harbor master told me I could use for a while, and tied him up. Right back where I started! Great!

My wife, who went from not being to sure about learning to sail, to absolutely loving the boat and being excited about sailing after our successful initial trip to the mooring, to hating everything to do with boating (and swearing to officially end the life of the official mooring guy from the official mooring guy list) in the span of half an hour stomped away and left to go get our truck from the beach where I left it. I waited at the dock pondering what could have gone wrong.

I finally decided that the mooring had to have come loose from the mushroom - why or how is a question for you know who from the official mooring guy list. I do not believe, and several people in the know have told me, that is not possible for a 25 foot boat to pull a 300# mushroom across 30 yards of harbor in 10 minutes. And, looking back, the buoy had to have already been off the mushroom when we reached it - it was closer to shore than I remembered and it was very close to another buoy.

I went home and left a message for the official mooring guy to call me and I told him what happened. I then spent the rest of the day watching our friend's 36' Catalina get launched and knocking back a few cold ones onboard while we ran the engine for an hour or so to make sure all was set for the new season (launch, engine, and beer all went fine - so my luck stayed behind with bob).

I am awaiting the official mooring guy to return my call - he has not as of yet (this is the third day). I'm fairly certain, and let me know if you disagree, that he should correct the problem at no additional charge to me.

One thing about this whole incident that has been on my mind every since is the question of whether or not I brought all of this on myself by renaming bob without the performing the proper ceremony and paying homage to the proper gods. I once scoffed at such ideas, but now... well, I got to go find that ceremony in the archives now.


Joe L.
bob CD25
Bristol, RI




jl0246@alpha.rwu.edu

[len]

joe

i laughed out loud reading your wonderful description of your recent outing - i commend you on your sense of humor and perspective -

len

[Nautical Traditions Offic]

Captain Commanding s/v "Bob",

I think that Jim Croce, had it right in "Bad, bad, Lee Roy Brown". Ya knows, don't p#% into the wind and don't mess around with Jim!!! Ah, Aeolus and Neptune fit the same mold. Ya should do the renaming ceremony ASAP, and remember the proper libation(virgin urine to de-name, and good Champagne for re-name)<virgin urine is VERY hard to come by these days!!!!>, pour a liberal amount on the vessel and a liberal amount (of champagne)down the throats of Captain and Mate. Beg forgiveness(on your knees, if that will make you feel better!)and all should be better the next time you put to sea. The rest is in the learning, and Oh, by the way, I agree with your Mate - Shoot that official mooring guy - there is NO excuse for that type of service!

Thanks for the great read, fair winds and following seas, your Servant Sir...........I remain.......

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30C
CDSOA Number ONE ! ! !
Nautical Traditions Officer
CDSOA, INc.

[Catherine Monaghan]

Great story (well, at least I laughed) -- glad nobody was hurt and the boat was also unscathed.

<a href="http://www.48north.com/mr_offline/denaming.htm">Vigor's Interdenominational Boat Denaming Ceremony, by John Vigor</a>

I thought you might also be interested in some sailing schools as well. Hopefully you can convince your wife to attend sailing school too.

<a href="http://www.offshore-sailing.com/">Offshore Sailing School</a> (I highly recommend this one. They have several sailing bases to choose from, the closest to you is probably the one in Newport, RI.).

<a href="http://www.seasenseboating.com/">Sea Sense</a> (This is a sailing school for women but they also provide "learn on your own boat" training for couples -- they come to you.)

<a href="http://www.chapman.org/">Chapman School of Seamanship</a> (They're in Florida but the trip is worth it.)

<a href="http://www.mdschool.com/index.htm">The Maryland School of Sailing and Seamanship</a>

<a href="http://www.sailingcenter.com/edu/ne.html">Other ASA (American Sailing Association) acredited schools in the Northeast.</a>

If you haven't already done so, I also recommend attending either a U.S. Power Squadron or Coast Guard Auxiliary boating safety class. Successful completion of one of these classes can also get you a discount on your insurance (depending on your insurer).

Have fun,
Cathy
CD32 <a href="http://www.hometown.aol.com/bcomet/real ... ization</a>, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay



catherine_monaghanNOSPAM@merck.com

[Neil Gordon]

What did you do with the old name? It's always a good idea when renaming a vessel, to keep the old name on board in a place of honor. LIQUIDITY's old name, SANDERLING, is lovingly preserved in the rag that absorbed it when I compounded off the painted on name and hailing port.


Regards, Neil
s/v LIQUIDITY, Boston
Cape Dory 28 #167



neil@nrgordon.com

[Richard Hill]

You don't suppose this is all because you succumbed to political correctness and named (and referred to) your boat in the masculine? I HIGHLY recommend a feminine name and reference! Sorry Bob.



captrahill@comcast.net

[Eric]

Outstanding. I think we can all relate to parts of that story, if not the whole thing. The biggest problem, is restoring your wife's faith in you, the sea and the boat. I'd suggest you try to get out for a sail with someone else to ease her mind that it can go well. You might pick up some stuff, too.

If you are ever up on the North Shore, you are both free to spend an afternoon on Allia.

As for the mooring guy, I think I would have been knocking on his door by now.

Eric Woodman
Allia, CD 25
Mancheter, MA

Well, my wife and I took bob out for the first time by ourselves Saturday morning. Our maiden voyage was to be a short one from the Bristol Town Dock to our mooring, which was installed Thursday. Being in a slip in a row of narrow docks and reading warnings on this board about the difficulty (or impossibility) of backing-up a CD25, I was a little nervous about getting bob out of the slip without banging it around. I decided against trying to motor backwards out of the slip, so with the motor running in idle and my wife aboard and our little Walker Bay tied to the back of bob, I pushed the boat back by hand out of the slip and turned it facing the exit. I then jumped aboard and put the motor in gear and we were off for the first time in our new boat. My first challenge was making a hard right between two piers to get out of the town dock. That was accomplished and we were off. My next challenge was to not run into this huge wood tall ship that was sitting right outside of the town dock raising it sails.

Feeling pretty good about my natural navigating abilities after getting out of the docking area and not ramming the tall ship, we settled back for our little cruise of a couple of hundred yards to our new mooring. I asked my wife if she wanted to go out in the bay first and motor around a bit, she declined saying we shouldn't wear the motor out, it was a sailboat after all. I think she thought a couple hundred yards on the first day was enough. Even thought the motor was purring along, it was probably a good idea not to go out motoring around anyway since the performance of the motor is still unknown to us and we didn't have any sails onboard had something happened to the motor (not that we'd know what to do with sails if we had 'em - did I mention that we're new to this?).

So we head for the moorings and pick ours out. I mentioned to my wife that it looked like it was a lot closer to the shore than I remembered it being when I went with the guy to dump it in the water. Oh well, I shrugged that thought off thinking it must look different since we were out on our boat and it was broad daylight instead of late evening as it was when I went with the guy that dumped it in - oh well, I told my wife that it was good that it was so close to the shore - less rowing in the dinghy!

I also noticed that there was another mooring about 30 feet away from ours - I shrugged that off too, thinking that everyone is installing new moorings and someone dumped there stuff and is going to put it in it's proper spot soon. I know it makes no since now, but what did I know. After all, I paid an official mooring guy off the official mooring list published and distributed by the Bristol Harbor Master a rather large official chunk of change in order to have my mooring officially installed and inspected by an official mooring guy off the official mooring guy list - how could anything possibly be wrong with my mooring.

After making four missed approaches, my wife finally grabbed the pick-up buoy and I carefully placed the pennant on my boat and carefully tied it down with the pennant rope so it would not pop off the cleat and drift to France. After taking care of a few details, my wife and I get into our little Walker Bay (a long story in itself) and rowed to the nearby shore (another long story in itself). To see bob from the shore, we had to look around the corner of a wall. I again mentioned to my wife that he sure looked closed than I remembered before, in fact, he even looked closer than when we were on it 10 minutes earlier. Oh, well, shrugged it off as an illusion, after all... the official mooring guy and all.

I walked to the town dock to get our truck to pick up the dinghy and when I get back to my wife and the dinghy, she runs up and tells me that some people next door told her that our boat is drifting across the bay towards their dock. We jump back into the dinghy (another story in itself) and after rocking and swaying and pushing and sweating and cursing, we get the dinghy off the bottom and float it out back into the bay. After rowing for what seemed like hours (by the way, I've found that no matter how close to the shore your boat is, it is never close when you are rowing an 8 foot dinghy), we reached bob, who is now bobbing up and down against the barnacle covered piers of a dock about twenty feet offshore. I get into the boat from the dinghy (there are now about 3 feet of very choppy waves) and after many failed and aborted attempts, my wife makes it on board also (another very long story in itself). I start the motor and try to slowly motor off the pier. We moved a couple of feet forward and the bow of the boat, which had been shaving barnacles, is now clear of its post and begins to swing right and the boat begins to go under the pier, which is about 10 feet off the surface of the water at this point. The people on the pier all run over to get ready to try and keep the boat from going under the pier as I reach back and throw the motor in reverse and give it full power. At first the motor kicked forward and I thought it was going to come out of the bin and end up in the boat with us, but once it stabilized, the boat slowly came to a stop and then began to creep backwards. Then, to my surprise (after what I've read on the board regarding backing-up a CD25, the boat began to move swiftly in reverse (FYI - a CD25 with an 8 h.p. Johnson Sailmaster will back-up very nicely!). Happy to be away from the pier, I was feeling a little relief when a guy from the pier yells out to me and tells me that I'm getting into some mighty shallow water. I looked back and saw that I was about 10 feet from the shore and I could clearly see the bottom just a few feet below my stern. I powered down and quickly threw the motor into the forward gear. The motor hadn't quite made it to idle yet and again, with the sudden switch from forward to reverse, I thought that it was going to join us in the cockpit. But the motor again stabilized and the boat stopped drifting backwards and began to inch forward, but now back toward the pier. I new that I needed to pick up some speed for my rudder to become effective, but my instincts told me "pick up speed and boat will ram pier causing much scratches." As I slowly drifted back toward the pier, a guy, who'd obviously done this more than me (which was once) yelled at me to give that thing some gas so I could steer it. I reluctantly gave it almost full power and moved the tiller as far as I thought I could without stalling it out. To everyone's relief, bob's bow began to swiftly turn to the left (I'll use fancy seaman words like "port" when I can keep my boat from tunneling under piers) away from the pier.

I saw that I was going to cross directly between my portable buoy and the pick-up buoy, but I had no choice. So as the motor approached the rope that attached the pick-up buoy and the main buoy, I reached down and kicked it into neutral - hoping that it would clear the rope. Much to my relief, the motor glided past the rope without snagging it. I kicked it back in gear and, after much waives and shouts of thanks to the people who so desperately saved bob from impending doom (translated - the people who saved their pier), we were again headed out to the open waters of the bay.

I made it back to the town dock, motored in to a slip that the harbor master told me I could use for a while, and tied him up. Right back where I started! Great!

My wife, who went from not being to sure about learning to sail, to absolutely loving the boat and being excited about sailing after our successful initial trip to the mooring, to hating everything to do with boating (and swearing to officially end the life of the official mooring guy from the official mooring guy list) in the span of half an hour stomped away and left to go get our truck from the beach where I left it. I waited at the dock pondering what could have gone wrong.

I finally decided that the mooring had to have come loose from the mushroom - why or how is a question for you know who from the official mooring guy list. I do not believe, and several people in the know have told me, that is not possible for a 25 foot boat to pull a 300# mushroom across 30 yards of harbor in 10 minutes. And, looking back, the buoy had to have already been off the mushroom when we reached it - it was closer to shore than I remembered and it was very close to another buoy.

I went home and left a message for the official mooring guy to call me and I told him what happened. I then spent the rest of the day watching our friend's 36' Catalina get launched and knocking back a few cold ones onboard while we ran the engine for an hour or so to make sure all was set for the new season (launch, engine, and beer all went fine - so my luck stayed behind with bob).

I am awaiting the official mooring guy to return my call - he has not as of yet (this is the third day). I'm fairly certain, and let me know if you disagree, that he should correct the problem at no additional charge to me.

One thing about this whole incident that has been on my mind every since is the question of whether or not I brought all of this on myself by renaming bob without the performing the proper ceremony and paying homage to the proper gods. I once scoffed at such ideas, but now... well, I got to go find that ceremony in the archives now.


Joe L.
bob CD25
Bristol, RI

woodman_eric@emc.com

[Olli Wendelin]

Joe,

Great story, perhaps you should send it to one of the sailing magazines. Make a few bucks.

Are you sure you tied up to your mooring? Are they identified with a number or some other way? Perhaps you tied to a lobster pot.

If you get no responce from the mooring guy, I'd contact the Harbor Master. Maybe the guy shouldn't be on "the list".

Olli Wendelin
BLUE MOON
Charleston, SC



wendelin@spawar.navy.mil

[Ed K]

Don't get discouraged. We had our first CD25 sail last weekend and it went fine BUT...
The first time I launched our Pt Jude 16 was at a public launch site with about 6 bass fisherman waiting for me to get the @#$%# out of their way. Didn't undo the strap that held her on the trailer, didn't put the plug in, didn't lock down the rudder and didn't secure the main halyard. Sigh. After several attempts I put her in, the trailer floated with her until she started to fill with water, the rudder/tiller started to float away, and the business end of the halyard made it all the way to the top of the mast with no sail attached. Another sigh. 10 years later I get red thinking about it and knowing that somewhere there is a bunch of fishermen who still get a kick out of telling the story. Incidently, my wife did eventually come back to the boat with me...

[Nautical Traditions Offic]

Captain Gordon,

Me thinks Sir, you are either very fortunate or very very lucky! The old name should be removed COMPLETELY from the vessel prior to the renaming ceremony. Do NOT put it under the mast step of all places! Read what John Vigor suggests. John didn't suggest it, but I have seen it somewhere else, that "Virgin Urine" should be poured on the stern to de-name the vessel. This is the tough part, when denaming Happiness(to forever be known as Hanalei). I walked the docks in Mystic for weeks looking for a Virgin that would supply said libation. Never did find one(virgin) but that may just be a fluke of Mystic, CT! I believe that West Marine can fill you needs but said liquid sells for somewhere in the neighborhood of $50.00 a ounce! ! ! For Hanalei, we used a fairly good chardonay! I think that you haven't suffered because Aeolus and Neptune can't recognize the old name all dissolved and soaked up in that smelly rag! Rouste it out and throw it over the side, Sir! One should not tempt fate!

The old name should NOT be on old stationary, old log books, life rings, life jackets, trail boards, or even on the dingy "dingy of s/v Bonny Bell", etc. Don't heave the old log book over the side though, take it home and put it on your coffee table for a good read on a dark and stormy night.

Good luck on your quest for "Virgin Urine". The trip is a pis*&%!

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30C
CDSOA Number ONE ! ! !
Nautical Traditions Officer
CDSOA, Inc.

[Larry DeMers]

Nice story..but I would argue that the bad luck is coming from the name being masculine rather than the lack of ceremony .

Ok, confession time: I have a beginners story also, see if this doesn't make you feel better:
When I started sailing back in the early 70's, we owned a Buddy Melges designed C-Scow, a 20 ft. Cat rigged monohull that could get up and plane off in 5kts of wind. We hit over 20 kts once in it in fact..great boat.
So, on our first solo trip to another lake with the boat, my wife Jan and I and our then 6 year old daughter Amy launched the boat at the crowded boat launch, which invariably held up a few other boaters. Jan moved forward to raise the 250 sq. ft. sail while I tended the tiller, keeping the boat in irons for this work. The wind switched a bit to starboard and filled the sail before I could react, and the boom came over and slowly pushed me in the chest (the sail was only 3/4 of the way to the top of the mast, so the boom had not been lifted by the tension on the sails leech, so it was basicly resting on the stern counter of the cockpit). It pushed so low down that I could not get under it and I could not lift it either for some reason. Next thing I knew, I was in the water, the boat was heeled over 20-30 deg. and speeding towards shore. My daughter Amy was int he center of the boat crying and shaking, scared to death of what was happening, and Jan was hanging on for dear life, feet dragging in the water, arms around the mast base. I yelled to her.."take down the sail!!" Good idea she says, and releases the halyard from her death grip. The sail slowly came down, and the boat powered up on the only mud bank for 100 ft..the rest was rock, and that would of been bad news for a wood boat like this. I still had my glasses on and my hat was still in place..the onlookers were having a ball, laughing it up..I was so embarassed and so ashamed of my lack of skill at handling that boat.
Well, Amy never ever set foot in that boat again, and we owned/sailed it for 18 years afterwards. She loves our CD30 though, so it didn't ruin her appreciation of sailing entirely, but it came close.

So you are not the only one experiencing beginner-itis. It happens probably to all of us I guess. Best to remember the lesson and move on to better things.

Happy Sailing!

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 Lake Superior

Well, my wife and I took bob out for the first time by ourselves Saturday morning. Our maiden voyage was to be a short one from the Bristol Town Dock to our mooring, which was installed Thursday. Being in a slip in a row of narrow docks and reading warnings on this board about the difficulty (or impossibility) of backing-up a CD25, I was a little nervous about getting bob out of the slip without banging it around. I decided against trying to motor backwards out of the slip, so with the motor running in idle and my wife aboard and our little Walker Bay tied to the back of bob, I pushed the boat back by hand out of the slip and turned it facing the exit. I then jumped aboard and put the motor in gear and we were off for the first time in our new boat. My first challenge was making a hard right between two piers to get out of the town dock. That was accomplished and we were off. My next challenge was to not run into this huge wood tall ship that was sitting right outside of the town dock raising it sails.

Feeling pretty good about my natural navigating abilities after getting out of the docking area and not ramming the tall ship, we settled back for our little cruise of a couple of hundred yards to our new mooring. I asked my wife if she wanted to go out in the bay first and motor around a bit, she declined saying we shouldn't wear the motor out, it was a sailboat after all. I think she thought a couple hundred yards on the first day was enough. Even thought the motor was purring along, it was probably a good idea not to go out motoring around anyway since the performance of the motor is still unknown to us and we didn't have any sails onboard had something happened to the motor (not that we'd know what to do with sails if we had 'em - did I mention that we're new to this?).

So we head for the moorings and pick ours out. I mentioned to my wife that it looked like it was a lot closer to the shore than I remembered it being when I went with the guy to dump it in the water. Oh well, I shrugged that thought off thinking it must look different since we were out on our boat and it was broad daylight instead of late evening as it was when I went with the guy that dumped it in - oh well, I told my wife that it was good that it was so close to the shore - less rowing in the dinghy!

I also noticed that there was another mooring about 30 feet away from ours - I shrugged that off too, thinking that everyone is installing new moorings and someone dumped there stuff and is going to put it in it's proper spot soon. I know it makes no since now, but what did I know. After all, I paid an official mooring guy off the official mooring list published and distributed by the Bristol Harbor Master a rather large official chunk of change in order to have my mooring officially installed and inspected by an official mooring guy off the official mooring guy list - how could anything possibly be wrong with my mooring.

After making four missed approaches, my wife finally grabbed the pick-up buoy and I carefully placed the pennant on my boat and carefully tied it down with the pennant rope so it would not pop off the cleat and drift to France. After taking care of a few details, my wife and I get into our little Walker Bay (a long story in itself) and rowed to the nearby shore (another long story in itself). To see bob from the shore, we had to look around the corner of a wall. I again mentioned to my wife that he sure looked closed than I remembered before, in fact, he even looked closer than when we were on it 10 minutes earlier. Oh, well, shrugged it off as an illusion, after all... the official mooring guy and all.

I walked to the town dock to get our truck to pick up the dinghy and when I get back to my wife and the dinghy, she runs up and tells me that some people next door told her that our boat is drifting across the bay towards their dock. We jump back into the dinghy (another story in itself) and after rocking and swaying and pushing and sweating and cursing, we get the dinghy off the bottom and float it out back into the bay. After rowing for what seemed like hours (by the way, I've found that no matter how close to the shore your boat is, it is never close when you are rowing an 8 foot dinghy), we reached bob, who is now bobbing up and down against the barnacle covered piers of a dock about twenty feet offshore. I get into the boat from the dinghy (there are now about 3 feet of very choppy waves) and after many failed and aborted attempts, my wife makes it on board also (another very long story in itself). I start the motor and try to slowly motor off the pier. We moved a couple of feet forward and the bow of the boat, which had been shaving barnacles, is now clear of its post and begins to swing right and the boat begins to go under the pier, which is about 10 feet off the surface of the water at this point. The people on the pier all run over to get ready to try and keep the boat from going under the pier as I reach back and throw the motor in reverse and give it full power. At first the motor kicked forward and I thought it was going to come out of the bin and end up in the boat with us, but once it stabilized, the boat slowly came to a stop and then began to creep backwards. Then, to my surprise (after what I've read on the board regarding backing-up a CD25, the boat began to move swiftly in reverse (FYI - a CD25 with an 8 h.p. Johnson Sailmaster will back-up very nicely!). Happy to be away from the pier, I was feeling a little relief when a guy from the pier yells out to me and tells me that I'm getting into some mighty shallow water. I looked back and saw that I was about 10 feet from the shore and I could clearly see the bottom just a few feet below my stern. I powered down and quickly threw the motor into the forward gear. The motor hadn't quite made it to idle yet and again, with the sudden switch from forward to reverse, I thought that it was going to join us in the cockpit. But the motor again stabilized and the boat stopped drifting backwards and began to inch forward, but now back toward the pier. I new that I needed to pick up some speed for my rudder to become effective, but my instincts told me "pick up speed and boat will ram pier causing much scratches." As I slowly drifted back toward the pier, a guy, who'd obviously done this more than me (which was once) yelled at me to give that thing some gas so I could steer it. I reluctantly gave it almost full power and moved the tiller as far as I thought I could without stalling it out. To everyone's relief, bob's bow began to swiftly turn to the left (I'll use fancy seaman words like "port" when I can keep my boat from tunneling under piers) away from the pier.

I saw that I was going to cross directly between my portable buoy and the pick-up buoy, but I had no choice. So as the motor approached the rope that attached the pick-up buoy and the main buoy, I reached down and kicked it into neutral - hoping that it would clear the rope. Much to my relief, the motor glided past the rope without snagging it. I kicked it back in gear and, after much waives and shouts of thanks to the people who so desperately saved bob from impending doom (translated - the people who saved their pier), we were again headed out to the open waters of the bay.

I made it back to the town dock, motored in to a slip that the harbor master told me I could use for a while, and tied him up. Right back where I started! Great!

My wife, who went from not being to sure about learning to sail, to absolutely loving the boat and being excited about sailing after our successful initial trip to the mooring, to hating everything to do with boating (and swearing to officially end the life of the official mooring guy from the official mooring guy list) in the span of half an hour stomped away and left to go get our truck from the beach where I left it. I waited at the dock pondering what could have gone wrong.

I finally decided that the mooring had to have come loose from the mushroom - why or how is a question for you know who from the official mooring guy list. I do not believe, and several people in the know have told me, that is not possible for a 25 foot boat to pull a 300# mushroom across 30 yards of harbor in 10 minutes. And, looking back, the buoy had to have already been off the mushroom when we reached it - it was closer to shore than I remembered and it was very close to another buoy.

I went home and left a message for the official mooring guy to call me and I told him what happened. I then spent the rest of the day watching our friend's 36' Catalina get launched and knocking back a few cold ones onboard while we ran the engine for an hour or so to make sure all was set for the new season (launch, engine, and beer all went fine - so my luck stayed behind with bob).

I am awaiting the official mooring guy to return my call - he has not as of yet (this is the third day). I'm fairly certain, and let me know if you disagree, that he should correct the problem at no additional charge to me.

One thing about this whole incident that has been on my mind every since is the question of whether or not I brought all of this on myself by renaming bob without the performing the proper ceremony and paying homage to the proper gods. I once scoffed at such ideas, but now... well, I got to go find that ceremony in the archives now.


Joe L.
bob CD25
Bristol, RI

demers@sgi.com