WINGSSAIL

This is Sailing

wingssail images-fredrick roswold

We were hitting speeds in the high sixes going upwind with 25 knots of wind and big seas and the ride was pretty bad. It would be nice to slow down but Wings, sailing to windward in a strong breeze, doesn’t know slow. Puttin up a small headsail and putting in a reef in the main makes no difference; still too fast. We flew off of wave after wave and landing was like hitting concrete. The noise was deafening. The bow tossed up ocean water like someone throwing buckets, only lots more. The wind then carried it back and it landed on the dock in rivers. The whole boat was continuously covered with salt water. Down below conditions were not so bad but after a day or so things started getting wet there too.

And the pounding continued.

Mp4 102 Rene Stands Watch on the Crossing (to see this video try clicking on the heading and then maybe click "replay")

Heavy water hitting the dodger

I knew the boat was strong and over the years I’d been through this before but after a while you just wonder how the hull and rig can keep taking it. But what to do? We really had to go upwind; we were crossing the Sea of Cortez going to La Paz and the route was up wind. So we just kept going, hoping it would be over. Resting down below or on deck huddling behind the dodger we just sat there taking a beating. Rene was stoic and I was glad for her experience and calmness but I was anxious and jumpy.

We tolerated it for two days

Finally I said to Rene, “Let’s try heaving to.”

“OK”

Hove too we were basically stopped, there was no slamming and no noise.

Hove to the boat became quiet and calm. Don’t let anyone tell you a race boat can’t heave to. It can.

We began to relax: “This is nice!”

We resumed sailing the next day and the wind continued. It was more of the same tough conditions. We hove too again the next night.

By the fifth day we had battled our way across the Sea of Cortez and we anchored in Baja at Los Frailies.

Well that was an quite an experience but it was over.

For the next month Rene and I explored Baja and it was much nicer. After Rene four other great crew members joined me, one by one, and helped me sail. It was fun. In the months after rough crossing there was some great cruising with weeks of sailing every day between the islands and many pleasant nights anchored in quiet harbors.

Mp4 108 Tacking San Jose Channel (to see this video try clicking on the heading and then maybe click "replay")

There were even some overnighters when Dulce and I found ourselves becalmed in the middle of the Sea of Cortez for hours on end but we kept sailing and kept the boat moving. Dulce became a pretty good light air sailor, she had to.

Three months later, on the trip home though, there was more tough sailing. Kelly and I found ourselves in a big squall which ripped the mainsail in half (more on this later) but we survived.

So, that’s sailing I guess.

Boat Work

There were also projects and repairs. Things like starters burning out and leaking water tanks which were wake up calls and needed immediate attention.

Small repairs kept us busy also.

The new dodger And then there was the dodger. I’ve made dodgers for Wings a few times over the years and the one I made in in Trinidad in 2013 was looking pretty ragged. We were lucky the heavy weather on the way up the Sea didn’t blow it out. Making a new one seemed like a good project to do when I had a few days alone in La Paz after Rene left. I got out my roll of white acrylic cloth and started cutting and sewing. I sweated and worked and made an ungodly mess with cuttings and threads and tools all over the boat. I was glad there was no crew aboard to have to deal with the mess.

For much of the trip we had a big problem with the propellor shaft and had to sail everywhere. The engine was basically useless even though we worked on it every day. When I returned the boat to La Cruz it immediately went into the boat yard for major repairs.

Living in Close Quarters

“What? No door on the toilet? Really? Will you please go on deck for a while? I need some privacy. And maybe you could put on some music.”

I had five crew members on board on this trip. Four single women and one guy, Kelly, who is one of my best friends. They all came individually. The women who dared to venture into this unknown liveaboard sailing thing were all pretty brave individuals, and trusting I guess, because they were going to be alone with me on this small boat and three of them had never met me before. But it worked out. It’s not just the toilet. There are no private quarters and no doors anywhere. Living in close quarters like this on a stripped-out race boat with a total stranger takes some getting used to. We shared the main cabin, changed clothes behind a partition, and everybody got the privacy they needed. We all tolerated each other’s quirks, and if anybody got on anybody’s nerves they never let it show. In any case it all went pretty smoothly.

About the toilet: Well, I told them about that before they signed up but it was still pretty shocking I guess. For the people joining me for the first time to live on Wings for a few weeks it was quite an experience.

Me? I had no problem? I enjoyed it all including the domestic stuff like sharing cooking and cleaning and choosing a wine together to have with dinner, I need the company. In fact I like it so well and am so used to it I think they are still there sleeping on the bunk across the cabin even after they have left. I wake up in the mornings surprised to find nobody there.

Meet the crew

wingssail images-fredrick roswold

Rene

“Hello Wings!” came the hail from the wharf. Terry, my new crew, an old friend of Rene’s had arrived she and she sailed with me for twelve days.

Terry

Kallie leqrns to steer

Kallie showed up next and we had a wild and crazy time going up and down the islands and exploring the small towns.

Dulce arrives

After Kallie the next crew change was scheduled in Loretto on the 17 of June and Dulce stepped off the bus right on time as the fourth crew member this year.

Dulce and I also had a lot of fun sailing around the Sea of Cortez including a few nights homeward bound when lack of wind and a broken motor left us sitting for hours.

Finally Dulce flew home from Mazatlán and Kelly arrived, after a grueling bus trip.

Kelly

How was it?

Terry had the worst time of it I think. When strong winds kept us hunkered down for several nights we didn’t get to go very far. But we made the best of it: we got to Puerto Balandra and went to the beach during the day for sunbathing and swimming and got back to the boat and got it closed up every night for the strong Coramel winds. If you know the right places to anchor 31 knots all night at is not a problem.

Night time Coremel winds

there were other ports and other crew, we all had a good trip.

Enjoying the sunset

But probably the best thing for my crew was the sailing. Rene and Kelly were old hands but the other three were pretty new to sailing so there was really a lot to learn. It was one long class. At anchor I demonstrated their jobs to them and then we practiced.

And we practiced.

Things like raising the anchor and setting the sails got to be mundane, as did getting the dingy up and down. Even anchoring, which takes some skill and coordination, became ordinary. Charts were studied and navigation was taught. I added nothing that we didn’t need to do on our cruise, but we covered everything, even repairs.

Sailing however, was the real fun.

Putting sails up I work the foredeck and crew tail the halyards and use the autopilot to keep us head to wind.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes”

“Ok, right 10 degrees, then hoist.”

Sometimes it’s hard work and I was glad for my time in the gym the last few months.

Tacking or jibing I am usually steering and handling the mainsail and helping with the running backstays. Sometimes we traded jobs but usually the crew did everything else, releasing, winching and including running forward to skirt the jib.

“OK, Ready to tack?”, I would call.

“Ready”

“Tacking”

Then winches spin and sails fly and three or four jobs have to be completed in quick succession. We did it all. And we did it well. Some days we did it over and over. There were no bad tacks.

MP4 424 Approaching Nopolo (to see this video try clicking on the heading and then maybe click "replay")

We sailed into tight anchorages and dropped sails on deck then secured them to prevent them from going overboard. Choosing the spot and setting anchor was the next challenge. My crews learned how to judge the bottom with their toe on the chain, how to tell when the anchor was holding and how to decide we were swell set. On their signal I would cut the engine and we would have a cold drink before the task of folding sails.

“It is time to start dinner or do I have time for a swim?” I think I heard that every day.

The Squall

After Dulce left my friend Kelly came for the trip from Mazatlán to La Cruz. I needed the experience he brought. The engine was basically useless and we had to sail out of Mazatlán harbor and of course all the rest of the way home.

We had some good wind and exited the harbor under sail without a problem but the season had changed and there were southerlies, so it was upwind work again.

About 03:30 in the morning I was below and Kelly was sailing close hauled on starboard tack in about 10 knots, using the windvane. The genoa was close hauled and the main boom was prevented out to port to keep it stable in the sort of lumpy seas.

“Hey Fred, something is going on with the wind”. I heard the call from my sleep.

Yep, something was going on all right, 30 knots hit us from the south east and knocked us right down on our starboard side, both sails aback.

I got on the helm, but what to do? I swung the boat around but close hauled on starboard, aside from being way over canvassed, took us to the NE. The other tack was pretty much west and neither was going to be good for the sails which were straining. Reefing the main would require going upwind and the genoa wouldn’t tolerate that, so it had to come down, not easy in this breeze, besides, which of us could go forward to hand the sail? It was one moment when I wished for roller furling.

We left the sails up as they were and I turned downwind. Kelly handled the sheets and I worked the runners and main. It was completely the wrong way to go but the flogging sails settled down and the boat came back under control. I steered by the Windex light at the top of the mast keeping the wind right behind us. Wings took off at 8 plus knots heading pretty much due north. We were glad we had sea room.

That was when the main let go. I heard a tear, then the sail unzipped from the leech to the luff, right across the middle.

Kelly said, “That is not a good sound to hear.”

We were still going 8 knots and steering was a handful. I couldn’t leave the helm and there wasn’t much Kelly could do either, so we just sailed, with the main in tatters.

Finally the wind moderated and I managed to get the windvane on and it took over the steering. Kelly and I went to work, untangling the mess, and put a reef in the main, just above the rip. Then we turned upwind and resumed sail to the south.