What’s
a sailor to do in the winter? One cold and blustery winter’s Sunday last month,
Lene and I enjoyed a very light lunch followed by a talk by Michael Tougias on his book
“Overboard: A True Blue-water Odyssey of Disaster and Survival” at the
Larchmont Yacht Club.
This
was a Corinthian event. The Corinthians are sailors who keep their boats in
real Yacht Clubs but join together to cruise, race, party and learn. We cruised
with them for a week in Maine in 2008. They started in the depression, the
great one, when two boaters were crying in their beer that the economy had
required them to lay off their professional crews and could no longer sail. One
guy had a bright idea: ”Hey! Why don’t I
crew for you and you can crew for me!” One of the many definitions of the word
“Corinthian” is “amateur”.
About 30 people showed up, including Dave, of Philadelphia,
who crewed with me on ILENE in the
Caribbean 1500, back in November of 2010. Dave is also active in the Coast
Guard, training program and has followed my example by retiring from his
project management job at a bank to have more time to sail his Island Packet.
The Larchmont is a very posh club compared to the Harlem.
This is a place where they sail seriously and entertain clients seriously. I
had seen the mooring field from the water but never visited the Club, by land
or by sea. With its tennis courts, paddle tennis courts, swimming pool and
swanky restaurant it is quite the Club.
Michael Tougias brought along “Lock(lin)” Reidy, the man who
went overboard during a jaunt from Bridgeport to Bermuda in May of 2005. He had
made the trip on the same boat with the same owner, Tom. several times before. The
small storm off Florida was supposed to pass slowly up the coast after their boat
had cleared its path, did not behave as predicted. It sped up to meet them and
there was no escape.
The “Almeison” a Hardin 45, was a beamy boat with many
fixed ports. The big mistake that was made was the failure to secure wooden
panels over the ports, especially the front facing ports. A big wave pushed a glass panel in and from then on the
crew was unable to keep the huge waves that were crashing on deck from pouring
too much seawater into the boat. She was knocked down twice: with the mast in
the water, and the life raft, deployed for abandonment, got detached from the
boat. Three other crew members, were brought back aboard, got into the liferaft and
were eventually rescued. But the owner, Tom, along with Lock were washed
overboard with their life jackets on but away from the life raft and spent the
next 24 hours floating in mountainous seas. During this time Captain Tom died of a heart attack, but Lock held on to his body
and both were eventually found and hauled aboard a huge ocean freighter headed for
Boston.
Lock continues to sail and so will we.
I also attended a planning meeting for the Harlem's annual sixteen day Club Cruise. As past Fleet Captain, I was there to show moral support to my successor, even though, because we will be in Maine, we cannot join the cruise. The consensus was for a rather short cruise, only as far east as Watch Hill RI. Next meeting will be to try to finalize the specific stops along the way.
And we offered a ride on ILENE as a prize in the Temple's Goods and Services auction. One of my colleagues as a Past President of that organization, Marty, who won the boat ride quite a few years ago, was the auctioneer. His wife, Arlene, was the winner. We look forward to sailing with them this season.
