Century Club: Richard Turman

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!

Light winds, and only two of us on the boat, so we had to declar non-spin.  Very light winds meant that when going wing/wing downwind, we just didn't move like the rest of the fleet, which had their spins up.  Course was VNVNV, and as always, the last run to V took forever.  On the positive side, it was only 75 degrees, which is a gift in the Chesapeake in the summer, and a beautiul night with no rain/t-storms.  Something to be said for that.

Started at A and went to V and back twice; they didn't shorten course, and the wind came down from light to very light.  But since I'd been out with a bad back the week before, it was good to be back on the water!

Finally cleaned the powerboat in preparation for guests, and then had to take her out to make sure she worked -- which she did beautifully.

Then took out the sailboat on the Severn River's Valentine Creek and Round Bay in the light winds of the afternoon, which ranged from 3-7 mph.  Enough to show one of our guests who had never been on a sailboat how they work!

After dinner, took the powerboat out to watch the fireworks off of Sherwood Forest.  With a severe thunderstorm forecast to start at 9:30, we were so pleased when the fireworks started early at 9:10, giving us a beautiful show before we pulled up the anchor at 9:25 and drove home before the show was over -- and got home before the other 400+ boats started to disperse, as well as right before the rain hit!