Chapman and Charts

(B)log . . .

I was hopeful that the northerly wind that had been blowing all day would abate somewhat during the night and we would have an easy day to beat up the last 45 miles to LaPaz. I awoke several times during the night as the wind was blowing through the rigging, so that you could hear it below. It did not sound very good. A fishing boat came into the bay from the sea and anchored about 200 yards from us. They seemed to be very heavily laden and I wondered what they were not on their way back to San Deigo. it was a very large tuna clipper and she was so heavily laden that her bow was almost down to the anchor chocks and her stern fishing platforms were at a leveal with the water.
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(B)log comments

Hmmm, what is a tuna clipper? That is why the internet is so cool. From your seat infront of a computer screen, you can find the answers to such questions.

When I started this effort, I knew that somewhere, there would be sections of the journal that described sailing along coast. That would connect memories with reality.

A memory I have from my childhood is one of the crew of Landfall II saying to another:

“Yeah, skipper is really something alright, one night I was on watch on the helm, offshore, watching a meteor shower, and he seemed to come out of nowhere!”

“Why are you off course! - he shouted at me.”

“I was dumbfounded, felt pretty stupid, I looked at the binnacle and sure enough, I was 10 degrees off – how in the blazes did he know that?”

“I snuck into his cabin a couple of nights later, there was no compass there!”

“He’s something alright; he just seems to know the compass heading, even if he isn’t looking at it!”

Chapman, in the chapter on the compass, describes a style of compass that is recommended to be mounted over the skipper’s bunk. But there was never such a device on Landfall. I figured out later that he was super observant. He’d pay attention to everything. The wind direction, the wave direction, even the loading of a Tuna Clipper anchoring in the same cove in the middle of the night. The port of call of said Clipper. All of these observations would be worked out in his head and assembled to give him a sort of weird ability to know stuff the crew was clueless about.

I’ve learned for example, how to sail with my ears.

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My Blog . . .

I’ve gotten to chapter 16 of Chapman, the chapter on charts, their symbols, abbreviations, shading, and a host of other chart related subjects.

As I’ve said before, somewhere in my garage is an old, rolled up sailing chart of the pacific. Marked on that chart are the noon sightings of the outward bound leg of my grandfather’s 1937 voyage. I went to West Marine and purchased a chart case. When I find that old chart, I'm going to take better care of it.

The last few posts from the journal are the stuff I needed to chart his course on this trip. This time on an electronic chart. I don’t have the noon sights, but the coastwise piloting . . . my decision to read Chapman cover to cover is paying off.

I’ve gotten to Feb, 2008 in EVK4’s blog. My Tillerman blog reading effort is way behind at Feb of 2006.

But I’ll catch up.

I got an email from a friend, I’ll call ‘Crewless?’ I met her at OCSC one day last year in May. She was standing at the head of the gangway to the piers wearing a T-Shirt that read “I want to CREW for YOU” She joined us for last years Summer Solstice Sail on Knot’s Sq’d. We left around 9 am, and got back at 2 am. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, went sailing with Carol Anne. Once I’m done with Cheryl's then Tilly’s blog, Carol Anne’s is next on my list of catch up.