Century Club: Richard Turman

Woodwind II is a glorious 2-masted schooner, and my sister and I had a great time in 10-12 knots of breeze.  The skipper had the crew of 3 raise the main within about 100 yards of leavimg the dock, and once it was up, cut the engine and we were sailing.  Got the rest of the jibs, staysails, and fishermen up and the boat really took off.  Had a turn at the helm once we were out in the bay, and boy was she responsive and easy to steer.  Avoided the RC for a laser race, and then got to go through the tail end of a race by the Navy 44's with their spinnakers up.  A lovely afternoon it was to be out, and made it about to mid-bay before we had to turn back, so the boat could be back by the end of the 2 hour scheduled cruise.  Beautiful!

Unfortunately, only one other boat showed up, and it takes 3 to have an official race.  We did lay a course -- A to V and back, and ran a starting sequence, but a 39' vs. a 20' isn't much of a race.

Was a beautiful night out anyway, with light but fairly steady breeze, which allowed me to enjoy singlehanding my way through the course.

Wonderful to be home again, and sailing on my own boat.  Had some good breeze, so ran a course from E to N and back, something over 3 miles.  Love watching sunset from Fiona, even though sunset is now coming earlier and earlier.

Arabella, a 157-foot 3-masted schooner, cruises two main locations a year, New England and the British Virgin Islands.  We joined the ship in Newport, RI, and sailed to Martha's Vineyard, on to Nantucket, back to Martha's Vineyard, on to Cuttyhunk , and back to Newport.  Arabella's mainsail is a spanker off its mizzen mast, and going forward, she sports a mizzen staysail, a main fisherman, a main staysail, a fore fisherman, a fore staysail, and a jib.  The crew of 7 (skipper, master, deckhand, engineer, plus chef, and two stewards), quickly put up all the sails on Monday morning on our way to Edgartown, in breeze of about 13-15 knots -- it helps that 5 of the 7 are on hydraulic winches.  We were fairly quickly moving along at 8 knots, though the engine remained on, since we were 'on a schedule.'  The skipper was happy for any of the 30 passengers who wanted to to steer, which I did a good bit.  Arabella has a sea-kindly motion, and easily translated 20-knot gusts of wind into forward motion, hitting 11-12 knots during those gusts.  Since this 98-ton vessel draws 13 feet, we anchored well outside the harbor at each stop, putting out "two shots" of chain with the anchor, a shot being 80 feet.  On Wednesday night, we put out 3 shots, since tropical storm Ida was coming, and good we did, since we were awakened at 5 a.m. with someone alerting the captain 'the anchor is dragging.'  A 180 degree windshift had pulled the anchor free -- that along with 36 knots sustained, with gusts to 61.  Once they got the engine on, the anchor re-set, and the crew kept the engine on to ensure we stayed off the lee shore -- which had been about half a mile off the night before, and ended up being about 100 yards off.  Wind dissipated as Thursday wore on, eventually lowering the wave heights so people could go into Edgartown on the 20' dinghy.  A fabulous lobster bake on Cuttyhunk the next day was a fitting follow-up to Ida -- a gorgeous day of sailing, with fresh lobster to enjoy afterwards.  Heck of a week!