Vamos! At Ease in Camden

In which Sid and Doris helm Sail 71.

We have a day at leisure before the race training starts again on Black Watch on Thursday.  Different people have different definitions of leisure, so Alzbetka chases the guests off Nereus with a deck broom before settling down to some serious cleaning.  (Yes, we did volunteer. No, we did not succeed. Yes we did really, really try.)

Black Watch and the regatta itself are in Camden, some 8 miles up the coast. Skyler [we later find out the correct spelling is Schuyler but too late – it will never be corrected in our minds] and Jenny collect us, Eric, DeeAnne and veteran sailor Bill in their mighty SUV and we see some more of Maine on our way over to Camden where Black Watch is berthed.

Black Watch is docked between a 75′ catamaran (vast in light battleship grey and incongruously named Namaste, possibly owned by a yoga teacher? a Thai restaurant owner?) and a highly-polished traditional motor cruiser.  We slip out for a day sail and a chance to get to know the boat better without dragging all those darned sails around.

Cap’n Kyle navigates carefully out around the maze of unmarked rocks lurking uncomfortably close to the surface.  “There ain’t enough iron in the world to mark all the rocks in Maine” they say.

Out in the bay with not much wind we use a high cut jib, or Yankee as we technical sailors call it, which means we can see where we are going (unlike in the races). Soon Doris is on the helm and buzzing along looking in many ways like Ellen MacArthur. After lunch Sid has the wheel and is excused some of his apparent incompetence as the land breeze and sea breeze are fighting for supremacy. The wind shifts are large. Sid looks like a mystified person in a Tilley hat, which should probably not be a surprise. Even so most of our tacks were pretty good for amateurs.

We come back into the pretty little harbour, rapidly filling up with classic wooden boats for the regatta. The spot that we came out of looks very, very small, with an unpleasant little onshore breeze encouraging us to make close acquaintance with the expensive catamaran’s bowsprit. “Well, I guess if you buy 68′ of space you get 68′ of space” says Cap’n Kyle. He calls up the marina and a couple of guys are waiting to take the lines. First Mate Max gives them some very precise instructions and throws them lines with loops on the end so that there is no scope for creative activity on the dockside (“You in the blue shirt. Put this line over that cleat by your left foot.”). Kyle motors against the spring line and as Sailing Monthly article predicted the boat gradually comes in. Max throws a stern line further than you think is ever possible. The stern comes in with over 12″ between the mizzen mast and Namaste.

With Nereus in Rockland and Black Watch and the regatta in Camden there is much to-ing and fro-ing (Toing, to rhyme with boing?) with generous taxiing from David, Schuyler and Jenny.

The next day we are due to have a practice sail in the afternoon, so Doris suggests Sid starts the day with a run. Sid runs out of town up main street pausing only briefly to look up the single line railtrack. Soon Sid is the only pedestrian, turning along North Shore Drive and out into the country. Blueberries here are $6 per quart. We later find them in the organic store five miles away at $16 per punnet.

Other people also have designs on Sid’s legs, namely to take them to Camden and drag them up the ominously-named Mount Battie which overlooks the harbour and the whole bay.

We finish the land-based exercising with a game of “I want that house”, apart from Joe who plays “I want that boat”. His excuse is that it is identical to the one he learned to sail in.  We manage to distract him with discussions of the afternoon’s sailing, although in hindsight it may have been a bit foolhardy to include the picture below as he is one of our very few and highly-valued regular readers and will certainly read this at some point.

PS We do now have another reader!  Welcome Jenny Benson!!  She is the founder member of S’s fan club, which in fact currently has exactly one member.  He is Very Excited about it.