Sea Trails

It's a three hour drive from where I live to Rock Hall, MD where VIBRANT lay for the surveyors inspection.  The route I traveled took me past the Rowe Blvd exit off of Route 50 in Annapolis.  It was exactly the same route my dad drove with me and the family over 42 years ago to drop me at the Naval Academy.  The feelings I experienced that day, excitement, fear of the unknown, uncertainty about my ability to measure up, elation mixed with fear at the thought of leaving my family, all came flooding back as I drove past that exit.  And then it struck me that just like 42 years ago, this route was the route to a new phase in my life. How fitting and satisfying.  Admittedly the emotions I was experiencing today were not nearly as intense or electric, but there was still an element of excitement and fear.  The excitement of unpacking that dream, the fear of doing so in a period of financial uncertainty.  But the clock is ticking...

In Rock Hall the broker, surveyor and I met at VIBRANT.  She lay at Haven Harbor.  The broker handled the boat and I played puppy dog to the surveyor as we got underway.  The surveyor used a handheld recorder to make his notes as he poked and prodded through all the lockers, flipped switches, conducted radio checks, and opened and closed valves. 

When he got to the engine compartment and opened it up his eyes lit up.  "An Atomic 4!  I used to own a business that rebuilt these engines."  The little four banger chugged along as he spoke and he was satisfied from the sound of the engine that she was sound.  So was I.  "Do you hear the valve noise?" he asked.  When I nodded he told me not to worry about timing the valves that they sounded fine.

When we went topside to shake out the sails for a visual inspection I made like a good deckhand and removed the mainsail cover and rigged the jackstays.  I chuckled to myself as I hauled the jackstays up because not three weeks earlier this extra line on the main had completely baffled me - I'd never seen one.  Now I handled it like I'd been using one for years.  The surveyor hanked on the main halyard and when he was ready I hauled on the halyard from the cockpit where all the halyards and sheets were led for single handing.  I got about two yanks on the halyard and then she fouled on something.  We all peered up at the mainsail head and, oops, the surveyor had secured the halyard in a way that it fouled on a shroud almost immediately.  I kept a very straight face as we lowered the sail, unfouled the halyard, and reset the sail, this time without incident.  Then it was time to unfurl the roller furling jenny.

This turned into a major chore because the swivel at the top of the sail fouled on the spinnaker halyard.  After a lot of pulling, shaking, squinting, mumbling and other incantations we finally freed the swivel and the jenny blossomed just as it had been designed to do.  Gorgeous!  Then it was time to furl the jenny and since I was at the controls so to speak I hauled on the swivel outhaul (I guess that's what it's called) and the sail furled like a dream.  Holy mackeral!  I thought of the hundreds of times I had set and doused a jenny of that size and all the work entailed - usually two crew required - one to ensure the sail didn't go in the drink and the other to man the halyard - and I just did it all from the safety of the cockpit.  WOW!

Next came a check of the Garmin naviplotter - another piece of gear that didn't exist when I last sailed.  The surveyor poked some buttons and squinted at the screen and called out, "We should just be coming abreast of channel marker # 6."  To which the broker and I both responded immediately, "There she is!"  That simple exchange struck a thrill in my heart.  One of the things I loved about boats at the academy was the thrill of the navigation.  Finding something exactly at the time and place you expected in unfamiliar water always elicited a little thrill of satisfaction for me.  I felt that thrill of discovery once again.  Oh yeah...oh yeah...

Then we were on our way in and the surveyor broke out his mallet and moisture meter, banging the deck looking for weak spots - I had done the same thing as I padded around in my bear feet, feeling for spongy spots and finding none.  After appropriate banging and random moisture checks he declared the deck sound and made the comment that the deck was probably almost as dry as when it had come out of the factory.  Big check mark in the plus column in my mind.  Right up there with a sound hull, no mast compression, and a good engine.

So the survey is complete and we await the surveyor's report before making a final decision.  After a three hour drive home I didn't feel any excitement at all - just exhaustion after six hours on the road and all the tension and excitement of the trial itself.

Today...today I'm excited and can't wait for the report!