Quote:
Originally Posted by Got+Stripers
John, you and I have more in common than just fishing, lol. My love affair with the ocean started back in high school and I lived for the Saturday/Sunday races. Come summer, you couldn't peel me away from the 110 with a crow bar. Some of my best memories of those years are sailing solo, out on trap, wind blowing a good 15-20 and watching the stars while zipping around between the harbor, north river and cohasset on those warm summer evenings. Nothing has come close to that feeling since, but a good night of fishing does come close. The 470's are a fun boat and the hobies are a wild ride in the heavy stuff.
Did a couple of summers teaching sailing, one for the town of Scituate and one for the Lincoln sailing club that operates off that pier by the 3A rotary at the inner Hingham harbor. Got some great stories from two crew jobs I was on delivering a couple yachts out of Ft. Lauderdale one summer. One was on a beautiful Crocker designed 42 foot catch build up in Kennibuckport Me, from FL to San Francisco. The other one I almost met my maker on and was on the racing yacht called the Congere. That was a fast 52 footer that was headed back to NY after finishing the southern circuit. The skipper took the outside route around Hatteras and we were nailed by a early November tropical storm. Waves taller than the boat was long, some the skipper estimated were pushing 65 feet. I've never been so cold, so wet and so scared in my life. We were standing 2 man/2 hour watches, because your body couldn't take the pounding much longer. As luck would have it, the storm jib broke loose during a late night watch I was on. We called up 2 crew and proceeded forward to haul in the sail. We were sitting on the deck hauling the sail in and we hit a monster of a wave and the ocean just disappeared. We came back down so hard that we plowed right through the next one and both of us were underwater for a few seconds. If it weren't for our life lines, we would have been overboard and history. I haven't even seen the perfect storm yet, just because I'm not sure I want to replay that in my mind. I got chills just watching the promo's.
Sorry, I tend to ramble, but that's what us old salt's like to do. Once you start us talking, you can't shut us up. Tight lines.
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You may be referring the April 1972 delivery of Congere to the Derecktor yard in Mamaroneck, NY. If that was the trip you were on, Ian Trevleaven and I were one watch, you and the legendary Sven Joffs on the other. I remember the spinnaker pole detached at the mast. The end dropped on deck and sounded like an explosion over my head below. Yes, it was very cold the last hours as we went into NYC harbor. Other memorable moments included seeing the launch of Apollo 16 as we passed Cape Canaveral at 12:54pm on April 16, sailing through the USSR fleet of spy ships near Cape Hatteras, and almost hitting a sleeping whale, surrounded by dolphins in glassy smooth sea.