John Morrison described Bluebird's voyage yesterday in the Burlington Island race this way: Doug sailed and I bailed.
There were five boats in the race. Bluebird finished third. It was a great day for sailing and a good learning experience. Now Bluebird is on land for the rest of the year.
The forecast was for 20 to 25 knots with gusts to 45. At noon, the wind was a steady 14 with gusts over 30. The same was true when the race started at about 1:30 p.m.
No one was familiar with the unorthodox starting regimen: A blast on the horn at three minutes, three blasts at one minute, two blasts at thirty seconds and one blast at the start -- I think.
John and I got aboard Bluebird on its mooring and struggled with the rig, trying to get the boat ready to race. The jib sheets snapped back and forth and tied themselves into a knot. We spent time tying a reef in the mainsail, never before having done that. But we managed to be on the correct side of the starting line when the final horn sounded.
But we were about 200 yards from the line, whereas the smallest boat in the race, being launched from the beach, was right at the line at the start. The other three boats were behind us, including another O'Day Mariner, a McGregor Venture and a Sea Sprite, the only keel boat in the race, painted a dazzling shade of red.
The wind was from the north-northwest, so we were on a broad reach heading upstream against the current. The river heads east northeast for a mile, passing under the Burlington-Bristol drawbridge and then veering north northeast to round Burlington Island. We had a choice to sail around the island or to round a red buoy upstream of the island.
Before we reached the bridge, Bluebird was planing, skimming across the water with the centerboard raised not quite all the way. We were pulling away from the Sea Sprite, which at first had only its genoa raised. The other Mariner and the Venture were at the rear, but within sight all the way.
After passing under the bridge, we were abeam of the lead boat. But now, turning to port to round the island, we were beating into the wind, and the air was coming at us in blasts.
It was now that I made my first mistake as helmsman.
One blast heeled Bluebird sharply. I did not react swiftly to spill the air from the mainsail. The result was that we heeled all the way over and the river came in over the starboard rail.
When you do this on Robin or another big boat, the water may fill the cockpit, but it will drain back overboard. Not so aboard Bluebird, which has no self bailing cockpit.
I handled the succeeding blasts properly, and we rounded the red buoy in second place, about the same distance behind the lead boat, sailed by Paul Zeigler and his big son, as we had been at the start.
But Rich, Mary and Sarah Vishton in the Sea Sprite were closing on us as we tacked back along the side of the island. They finally passed us when we closed in on the bridge.
Now twice in succession I forgot to spill the mainsail when we were hit by blasts and river water was sloshing around in the cockpit and the cabin. John began bailing with a cut-off plastic gallon jug and I tried to keep from having to tack.
John turned 80 last month. Some 60 year olds make John look decidedly younger than they appear. He's in good shape, to say the least.
But what I did to him was obscene. There he was, bent over the centerboard or the port rail, his ass and elbows pointed toward the bright blue sky, his arm working furiously, emptying Bluebid. His was a gallant performance.
We managed to cross the finish line in third place, not more than four or five minutes after the Sea Sprite. I don't think the Zeigler boat was too far ahead of them. And the Frenches and the Rife's in the other two boats were close behind us.
As for poor Bluebird, she is on land. I need to figure out why she is taking on water -- and not the water she shipped during the race. Back on the mooring, I saw a thin stream of water entering at the centerboard bolt.
We had an exhausting but great sail, and we're waiting for next year to do it more often -- in a dryer boat.