[Rhodes22-list] Around The Tip Of The Mitt
Todd Tavares
sprocket80@mail.com
Sat, 28 Sep 2002 10:44:16 -0500
Roger,
If you get tired of the engineering job you could make it as an adventure novelist. GREAT story! I was riveted.
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402@centurytel.net>
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 00:56:14 -0400
To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Around The Tip Of The Mitt
> As many of you know, I have a friend named, Dan who owns a 42' sailing catamaran. For the last two seasons, Dan has kept his catamaran at Jerry's Marina on Tawas Bay, which is an arm of Lake Huron. For winter storage this year & next summer's dockage, Dan has worked out a package deal over in Pentwater, MI. Pentwater is a small inland lake connected to Lake Michigan by a very old (dredged out in 1883!) manmade channel. Of course, the only way to get the cat from Tawas Bay to Pentwater was to sail it there. This voyage involved a trip north up the west coast of Lake Huron, to the Straits of Mackinac, & then back down the east coast of Lake Michigan to Pentwater, a total distance of about 350 nm.
>
> Dan & I had talked about this trip about three weeks ago. It was supposed to take about 4 - 5 days & we were going to double-hand it. Fall is a much better time to make this voyage than spring because the water is still relatively warm as opposed to just barely above freezing in the spring! Then, at the last minute, Dan's Father-In-Law & a friend from Tennessee showed up & wanted to help crew the boat. Dan decided to turn the voyage into a "boy's night out" family-only outing & I was no longer on the crew roster.
>
> They left Tawas Bay on Sunday Morning, 09/22/02. On Monday afternoon, I got a desperate cell phone call from Dan. They were still on Lake Huron, in between Cheboygan, MI and Mackinaw City. His two crew were both seasick & hypothermic! There was no way they wanted to continue. We made plans to exchange crew in Mackinaw City. I threw some gear together, had my wife take me over to Dan's house, & drove his Father-In-Law's Ford pickup up to Mackinaw City. I got there about 22:30. Dan's crew were all packed & ready to leave. They were cordial enough around me, but the tension in the air was crackling like static electricity! They didn't even drive back to Sanford. MI that night. Instead, they took a motel right in Mackinaw City & drove back to Dan's house the next day. I didn't want to embarrass my friend by asking any questions that night & we just went to bed. The entire story came out over the next three days on the trip down Lake Michigan. I will respect Dan's!
right to family privacy by not going into the details, but suffice it to say his in-laws probably won't be going sailing anymore!
>
> Tuesday morning dawned with a 30 knot west wind & 6' - 8' waves roaring right up the Straits of Mackinac! For a time, the State Police actually had to close the Mackinaw Bridge to traffic because of the wind. Dan's cat only has two 10 bhp outboard engines. There was no way we were going to make any progress dead to windward in these conditions. Instead, we stayed put in Mackinaw City. We made some repairs on the 150% genoa & the reef points on the mainsail. (Don't ask, it's the in-law thing!)
>
> NOAA weather radio predicted the wind would die down overnight & shift to the south at 15 - 20 knots & waves 3' - 5' by Wednesday morning. During the day on Wednesday, it was predicted to steadily build to 25 - 30 knots & waves 6' - 8'. We departed Mackinaw City at 05:45 & hoisted the 100% working jib & full mainsail. It was the 1st time I've ever sailed under the Mackinaw Bridge at night. Only a few of the buoys marking the shipping channel are lit & we kept a sharp watch lest we hit one of them. The Mackinaw bridge is awesome anytime, but a little frightening to approach at night. The temperature was about 40 deg F as we departed & the air was damp with a light morning mist. I was wearing polypropylene insulated underware under my foul weather gear, gloves, & woolen stocking cap.
>
> About 20 nm west of the Straits of Mackinac, there is a rocky shoal called Gray's Reef. There is only one safe passage thru Gray's Reef & a 1/2 nm wide channel that's well marked by lighthouses on each end & intermediate channel marker buoys. I was driving & we were averaging 10 knots, sometimes peaking at 12+ knots as we surfed down the bigger waves. By this point, the waves were 4' - 6'. Dan's cat actually handles 12+ knots quite nicely, throwing two big roostertails out behind it. But, it does start to bounce a bit & catch a little air off the bigger waves. We were both thoroughly enjoying the ride when we heard this "clunk - splash" sound. "What was that?", I asked. Dan answered, "Oh probably just the garbage sack of empty cans on the aft trampoline." I replied, "OK, as long as it wasn't a hatch cover or something." At this point, Dan looked at the transom on the port hull & noticed the hatch cover on the rudder post compartment was missing! We looked astern!
& saw the 2' X 2' square white hatch cover still floating, but rapidly receding behind us. We debated for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only 15 - 20 seconds, whether we should attempt a recovery. Finally, we looked around to see that there was no traffic all the way to the horizon from each end of Grey's Reed Passage, & executed a man overboard maneuver - an emergency gibe at 10 knots in 4' - 6' seas & 20 - 25 knots of wind, in the middle of a narrow shipping channel! Roller coasters are going to seem tame from now on! Dan's cat doesn't have roller furling, so we couldn't get the sails down in real time to have any hope of finding & recovering the tiny white hatch cover amongst the sea of white caps. We got the engines started. As we roared back to the spot where the GPS said the hatch cover went over, we both searched frantically. Finally, we'd gone back about 200 yards past where it had fallen overboard & we turned back around. As we were coming a!
bout, I spotted the hatch cover about 100 yards over to starboard. But, with the sails still up, we couldn't get over there. So, we had to get into position upwind of the hatch cover & make another run at it. But, the seas were so heavy that Dan wasn't able to scoop it up in a big fishing net as we passed by. We tried again & failed again. By this time, Dan was getting pretty tired, so he took over the helm & handed me the fishing net. On the 4th attempt, Dan brought us right down on the hatch cover. I was laying on the front trampoline, hanging over the bow from my harness with the fishing net in both hands. The bow was pitching up & down a good 3' on each wave & I was getting thoroughly sprayed down in my foul weather gear. At the top of the cycle, I couldn't even reach the water with the fishing net. I thought, "This is going to have to be perfectly timed because I'm only going to get one shot at it." At the bottom of the next wave, I shoved the fishing net int!
o the water in front of the hatch cover & let the next upward pitch of the bow carry the hatch cover into the net & out of the water. At the top of the wave, the hatch cover shot upwards out of the net, but I scooped it out of the air like it was a big white butterfly! As I made my way back to the safety of the cockpit, I yelled to Dan over the wind & waves, "You owe me a beer for that one!" The rest of the trip over to St. James Harbor on Beaver Island was fast, but anticlimactic after that experience. The wind was averaging 25 knots & gusting to 30 knots with waves 4' - 8' as we turned the corner to enter St. James Harbor. We watched the storm build & pass thru the area thru the windows on the cat's bridgedeck cabin as we lay safely at anchor. Then, after lunch on board, we both took a nap in the afternoon. From anchor up in Mackinaw City to anchor down in St. James Harbor, including all the frogging around in Grey's Reef Passage & searching around St. James Harbor !
for a suitable spot to drop the hook required almost exactly 5 hours. The rhumb line distance is 40 nm, so we averaged 8 knots! I guess I should point out that Dan's cat is custom made, so you can't just order up a new hatch cover for it. The transoms have a classic "sugar scoop" profile & the top surface also has a crown so it drains water both ways. The hatch cover is molded to fit this compound 3-D curvature & would be a very difficult piece to duplicate at home. Dan was extremely pleased we were able to recover it. We celebrated our good fortune & teamwork that evening on shore with a fancy dinner at the Beaver Island Lodge.
>
> NOAA weather radio predicted that a fast moving cold front was going to pass over northern Lake Michigan late Wednesday night. Behind the cold front, the wind was supposed to shift to the north - northeast at 15 - 20 knots with waves 3' - 5' on Thursday morning. We departed St. James Harbor at 06:00. Apparently, the cold front stalled out over Lake Michigan because the wind was still out of the southwest at only 10 - 15 knots with waves 1' - 3'. At about 08:30, the repaired 150% genoa ripped out in a different spot & this time the tear was nearly 10' long! I told Dan the problem was not really with his in-laws, the sailcloth had simply reached the end of its useful service life & it was time for a new sail. We put the 150% genoa away, put up the 100% working jib, & started the engines in order to keep our speed up around 5 - 6 knots. We putted along at 5 - 6 knots all day until about 16:00. Then, the wind suddenly shifted around to the northeast & the temperature d!
ropped about 10 F deg in a matter of about 20 minutes. We both said, "YES!" We quickly hoisted the spinnaker, shut down the engines, & our speed increased to 8 - 9 knots. We broad reached like this until about 20:30. After dark, the wind died down to 5 -10 knots & got sort of flukey. Although we were about 2 nm offshore, I think we were getting wind shadow effects from the high sand dunes along this part of the Lake Michigan shoreline. Anyway, we were both too tired & it was too mentally taxing to keep the spinnaker inflated in the dark under these conditions. So, we put the 100% working jib back up. Our speed dropped back down to around 5 knots. At around 00:00 on Friday morning, the wind dropped even more & we had to fire up one engine in order to maintain 5 knots. We tied up to the State Harbor of Refuge dock in Pentwater at 04:00 Friday morning, after about 22 hours at sea. The rhumb line distance from St. James Harbor to Pentwater is about 125 nm, so we avera!
ged about 5.2 knots. After we hoisted the spinnaker, Dan & I each single-handed the boat in 2 hour shifts while the other rested, cooked, ate a meal, used the head, etc. The autopilot did a reasonable job with the 100% working jib & mainsail as well as under power, but couldn't react quickly enough & with the proper technique to keep the spinnaker inflated. I tried fiddling with the tuning parameters on the autopilot (Hey, I'm a chemical engineer - we can never leave a controller alone!), but I couldn't get it to reliably steer with the spinnaker. So, in the end, we had to manually steer while flying the spinnaker.
>
> After tying up in Pentwater, we both crashed until about 09:00 Friday morning. Then, we got up, made breakfast on board, cleaned up the boat, & used the shower facilities on shore. Dan's wife, Mary, picked me up in their car about 12:00 & drove me back to Sanford. We left Dan at the cat in Pentwater so he could make arrangements to have the mast unstepped & get the boat prepped for winter storage. Hopefully, he'll be home Sunday evening.
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
>
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