Winter Activities

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.