Creating a Cruiser
By Chris Edmonson
Normally you will read the account of a cruise in some chronological order that describes where we went and/or what we did and that pretty much sums up how we understand the experience. This time, however, I gained a different perspective that has led me to a newer understanding of how to look at all this running around in boats from here to there a little differently.
Quizá, my Columbia 26 Mk II, is pretty much set up to cruise with two people aboard and day sail with however many are ready to go racing. Just before the Regatta dinner this May I was in conversation with Steven Eichelberger about where the cruise was going and he repeatedly said he would like to do the cruise sometime. Without consulting Rex (please forgive me for that, Rex) I invited Steven along. He hemmed and hawed for a few seconds and I got the idea that he was suddenly torn between conflicting forces. I then said, “Well, let me know before dinner is over so we can make arrangements if you are going.” A bit later his father, John, came over and asked if I was serious? “Absolutely,” was all that I could say. What you may not know is that I first met Steven when I was crewing for John in a couple of regattas some time back… he was younger then and is now nineteen. I have followed his trials by fire toward adulthood over the last few years and thought he would make an interesting crewman for this trip. A long tormented story made somewhat shorter, by the end of the evening Steven was signed on as crew and we had a list of fresh things to add to the items needed before our planned departure for Bahia San Pedro around noon the next day.
Now, it can be said that Rex and I are very relaxed when it comes to sailing together since we have logged a lot of days of that activity over the last several years. We have standing lists of things that we need before setting off and whether we are on his boat, Shellback, or mine we know what we need to accomplish to be ready to set off. Adding a crewperson meant revisiting a few parts of our list. Fortunately, with his parent’s help Steven brought along the safety gear like harness, floatation and sunscreen leaving us to sort out a few extra provisions issues. A quick trip into Leys and we had most of what we needed. Add to that about seven cases of beer and a couple of bottles of Appleton’s rum plus the Las Palmas Len and Larry so generously contributed and we were ready indeed.d.
And, here’s where the story starts to get interesting!
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Leaving San Carlos with a crew person you have only raced with is going to leave you with questions about what that person knows from a cruising perspective. We pretty much left that for the Discovery a Minute Club and just waited to see what unfolded.
One task we always have at anchorage is to row ourselves here and there. It was a tight squeeze putting three of us in the Walker Bay 8 (designed for 2 people) and getting anywhere. With my larger size the dink was best balanced with me rowing and Rex and Steven in either end. A bit unstable but doable as long as we all cooperated. As happens, sooner or later we would need Steven to row somewhere and early on Rex and Steven set out to do some boat visiting and beach chores. Rex rowed into shore and dropped Steven off for his bit while Rex went visiting and I cleaned up the boat. Now Rex’s track was straight as a string into the beach and when he went back to pick Steven up it turned out that Steven was the rower coming back to the boat.
With the realization that this needed improvement we gave out a few hints along with moderate abuse and sent Steve off alone in the dink (Ojalá) on various chores and by the end of a couple of days he was as proficient a rower as there was in the fleet.
Of course this did not prevent him from falling off the boat into the dink, capsizing it, and then subsequently going into the water at a later time. The funny thing was that he continued to row the dinghy, full of water splashing everywhere, until we convinced him to come back and empty it before continuing on his way!
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Sleeping arrangements on Quizá are simple for Rex and me. We prefer to sleep in the cockpit and leave below decks for storage, cooking, chart reading and the like. With three onboard we had to rethink this and Steven (nicknamed Boat Boy) ended up on the starboard settee. This turned out to be a good and not so good thing. It was good that he had less light in the morning since, at nineteen, he follows the sleeping habits of the young rather than the up at the first light pattern some of us find good. It was not so good because he was sleeping on the main storage area for much of our edible stores. It was while underway that we learned how to manage the amount of sleep time allowed for crew. Given his druthers I think that Boat Boy would have slept unless something much more compelling was happening. The thing that worked was for Rex or myself to go below anytime Steven came up from the cavern and steal his sleeping spot… either by taking a nap ourselves or just sitting there reading a chart or some such. After a while he became a full member of the crew because he couldn’t go back to sleep!!
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One night we had made the error of allowing ourselves to be grounded in a very big tide change (9 feet). This gave us an opportunity to have Steven learn about anchoring first hand. We had discussed this subject a few times before we were doing this in the dark in somewhat windy conditions.
At Estanque, a fantastic anchorage, we heard a bunch of calls on the radio while we were having dinner on Dance Baybe with Richard and Marla, saying that Quizá was aground. We dinghied over and sure enough there was a distinct list to the boat and it was clear that if we acted right then we would put forth a lot of effort for very iffy returns. Better, it was decided, to just wait until the boat re-floated and then re-anchor. As it happened Scott and Loretta allowed us to disrupt their evening and we had an impromptu party aboard Half Cat until about midnight when Quizá was again barely floating. Off we went to reset the anchor in a new place.
The way it worked out Rex and Steve boarded and I stayed in the dinghy. Rex started the motor and I pushed to the side from the bow and Quizá came free of impediments fairly easily. With Steven on the bow we made a few attempts to reset the anchor only to find we were in too shallow of water, just too close to other boats or in weeds that would not allow the hook to set properly. From my position off the boat I could also see that Steve was not letting out enough rode. We had the discussion about rode a few times since the beginning of the trip (and the resulting follow up quizzes) but this was the first time Steven was on the bow by himself. Rex repositioned with bow to wind and I called to Steven to continue to let out the rode… this time it set nicely so that I could go to the stern to set that anchor. There is a difference between telling someone about scope and seeing that it really IS a lot of line!! Lesson learned.
That this lesson was truly learned became even clearer when we had another anchor dilemma at Salsipuedes. By now Steven understood in detail what we needed to do and set about re-anchoring to get the desired effect and he played a key role in rowing the stern anchor out to where we needed it (albeit with the wonderfully powered assistance of Dick Sebastian’s dinghy).
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Fishing is a constant on Quizá when cruising. We had a chance to show Steve early on that fishing is GOOD!!
I had been below and heard some activity on deck. When I came out to see what was going on there was Steven in a pile of monofilament with a beautiful Sierra landed in the cockpit. Looking at the tangled mess that had been my line we set about talking about what issues there are with fishing without a pole and reel. I gave Steven a fresh bunch of line (while quietly chuckling) and he attached the lure to it and started to let it out. Not thinking that he would not start reeling it back in as soon as he had it the proper length I went about filleting the fish. With a yell the startled Steve was looking at his fingers empty of line and lure… sure enough as soon as he let it out he didn’t realize he was fishing again. So much for my lure and new expanse of line!
Over the course of the next couple of weeks we ate fish or other seafood almost every day; much of it because Steven clearly took to this fishing stuff. His first filleting job on a small Dorado looked more like hamburger but by the end of it he had a clear understanding of what to do. All future fillets were to be admired. With the added instruction of Dick Sebastian Steven became a good provider and we hailed the great meals of Bonito, Dorado (Mahi Mahi), Sierra, Trigger, crabs, clams and other such that came on board.
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One of the many “ah-ha” moments for me was when chores got handled without any deep thought. One evening we had just finished dinner when Steven picked up all the plates and cooking gear and did the dishes! His one comment was, “Oh please, just don’t tell my Mom.” Okay, I won’t.
There was also a night when Boat Boy made a scrumptious meal with trigger fish. Hmmm, is he catching on?
The day Steve picked up the microphone and answered the call from another boat was good one too. This was fairly far along in the cruise and more than once Steven had expressed hesitancy at the use of this essential bit of equipment. One of my favorite radio people on the cruise is Shea from Bold Venture II (as well as Sara from Arrakis) because at her young age she has mastered the radio. More than once I expressed this opinion in contrast to commenting on the various fisher folk and other abusers of the VHF radio. It was obvious that Steve was intimidated but a breakthrough happened after both Rex and I had continued to encourage Steve to respond to calls. By then he had heard the response sequence so many times it was impossible to get it wrong, really. He got it right and that was a particularly good moment.
To end this without all the many other stories seems a wee bit short but then there is only so much space for such things. I mean, there was fog, there were whales, and there were other safety issues. There are certainly a lot more stories that could be told from this cruise! Alas, this is where we need to call a halt for now.
One of the challenges that went out to the fleet from Niña was to create a limerick for or from the boat. The boat limerick was for the end of the cruise… one of ours was:
There once was a boat named of Cheesy,
The original crew a bit wheezy,
They took on a lad,
He wasn’t so bad,
But now the whole mess is just sleazy!!
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