way out over the water to get weight as far out as possible. The idea is to heel the boat over so the keel will lift off the bottom and the boat will drift free into deeper water. It works. She begins bumping along the bottom and in moments finds deeper water. But then there is a snapping sound as a jam cleat on the main sheet lets go. The mariner finds himself flying out over the water and then into it. The sloop is now drifting away with the breeze and a surprisingly strong current, and it is all the mariner can do to catch up with her. It is touch and go, but he makes it, swimming faster and better than he ever has in his life before. Now he finds that his problems are not over. Try as he may he cannot quite get up over the high topsides. Time and again he tries, leaping up in the water and trying to turn his wrists so that he can push on up and reach the deck. Time after time he gets close, but never close enough. Already very weary he is now becoming
physically exhausted. The island is too far away to swim for. He thinks of sharks. He thinks of hypothermia. Near panic, he suddenly remembers something simple and obvious. Letting go of the rail, he swims back to the dinghy. Grasping the dinghy’s transom, he pushes down and surges up. The transom sinks and his body rises high enough so that his belly folds over the transom. He is in. Back aboard the sloop, he anchors immediately. He and the sloop will spend the night anchored on the open banks, a not uncommon practice in these parts. Then it is rum for all hands. Tomorrow will be another day. Bill Cheney, a regular contributor to Points East, sails the engineless Marshall 22 catboat Penelope out of Burnt Coat Harbor, Swans Island, Maine.
YAChT AT ReST, MIND AT %ASe
0HOTOS BY /NNE VAN DER 7AL
ST. ST. THOMAS ĂŽ FREEPORT FREEPOR T ĂŽ NEWPORT, NEWPOR T, MAY MAY
DYT USA: 4EL p % MAIL DYT USA DOCKWISE YT COM DYT Newport, RI: 4EL p % MAIL ANN DOCKWISE YT COM
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Points East Midwinter 2011
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