Dismasted!

8/27/07 – Chris and Mike came up with the idea of taking both my boat and her boat, Little Bird, out on the ocean and taking pictures of both of them. It was a beautiful morning because the sun was out and there was a nice breeze, a perfect morning for a sail. We each got on our respective boats and motored down the South River and began riding the swift outgoing tide towards the North River inlet into the ocean. There was an east wind so it was blowing against the tide in the narrow inlet, conditions that all mariners know can create treacherous tall, square waves. Erica J was in the lead and I was able to slowly plod through them without much fear since I knew that the boat had endured much worse over this trip and that it would be far gentler as soon as we were out of the inlet. I turned my head fairly often to see how Little Bird was doing. I looked back after a particularly large wave and could not believe my eyes, Little Bird had been dismasted. I screamed an expletive and cranked my tiller over to turn around. The mast was laying over the cockpit so I was horrified that the heavy metal pole had hit Chris or Mike on its way down. As we got closer, I was relieved to see both of them looking just fine but with baffled expressions on their faces. Apparently the mast had come down right between their heads. I turned around again so I was following them and I called Chris on the phone since shouting was ineffective. We came up with several ideas but eventually decided to have both of us go to Scituate Harbor to avoid the treacherous inlet again. I followed them there and we found slips at the Scituate Marina. I helped them restep the mast with the toolkit in my boat. Mike had to walk to the local marine store to get a new pin but we were very surprised that the fix was so easy. She left her boat there and I went to a mooring in the harbor. I met Chris and her mother for a late dinner at a local restaurant called the Bridgwaye.