Sailing

Sailing a boat requires years of practice and learning and will include a lot of adventure. I was not a first class sailor but knew enough to make a good member of a crew which means doing what the skipper orders and do it fast and right or get hell bawled out of you in good old sailor language, a very down to earth language.

I have scraped, caulked, painted, varnished spars and even painted names on the hulls. I have fallen overboard a few times and learned to like it. I have run boats aground on all the shallow spots that I could find, ran them up on docks, have been overboard pushing them over mud banks and turned them over and dumped people into the lake - but have been lucky enough not to drown anybody.

This is the part of Sailing that makes for the excitement all he-men crave. I think it is a good adventure for anybody as it teaches them to respect nature and learn its ways and moods - use your noodle, a very valuable asset in this hectic life.

Rowing a boat is work, driving a power beat is a mechanical thing but sailing is a very satisfying and beautiful art and a conflict between you, the boat and nature.

I remember one trip - a sailors' outing at Denmarsher's Road House, on the Clinton River, when we sailed the yawl, "Little John" and we took the entertainment with us which included two female dancers, two male musicians and their musical instruments and we had a small dingy dragging behind us as a safety measure. Late in the afternoon we decided to have lunch and I was the goat and got the job. I decided on fried sausage, meat, toast and coffee. I pumped up the gasoline stove, primed it with alcohol, and lit it but I had pumped too much and the flames went up to the ceiling and also lit the can of alcohol on the edge of the stove. Then things happened, the can of alcohol fell off and sprinkled a sailor, named Dutch Himmerline, in the face and left the sailor with little blue flames on his face. There was alcohol burning on the floor, the flames from the stove reaching the top of the cabin and it sobered me up quickly. I decided I had to do something so I reached for the fire extinguisher, a long can of power on the wall, pulled it off as the directions said - but instead of pulling the can and leaving the cap on the wall the screw in the wall came out which left the can unusable. I had to pry the cover off with a knife which I finally did. I asked the sailor if I should pour some on his face but he didn't like the idea so I sprinkled it around the cabin but all it seemed to do was move the fire all over. I decided to get rid of the alcohol can by throwing it out of the port hole - but this was my unlucky day as the two dancers and another sailor were sitting there and I hit the sailor on the side of the head and burned all of his hair off that side. Things were getting hot but I grabbed my raincoat and smothered the fire on the floor and the stove, pressure eased up and the flames went out on the sailor's face and I started to breathe naturally again.

Fire on a boat, with an auxiliary engine with a twenty gallon gas tank has some gasoline in the bilge - this is no laughing matter when you are about five miles from land.

Then I looked over the damage - one sailor with a bunch of blisters on his face, one sailor with no hair on the right side of his head and a few blisters, I had blisters on my hands, the sausage meat ruined, alcohol all gone, two very scared dancers and scared musicians - but one thing that crew was the most sober crew I ever sailed with. Finally we settled down and reached Denmarshes and we had a wonderful weekend. In fact Mr. Denmarsh had to part of the Mt. Clemens police force to get the sailors to bed so they would be in shape to sail home the next day. The dancing was good the music satisfactory.

One sad thing was that they never treated me as a hero, which I was, but made snide remarks about my ability as a cook. I eventually lived it down and it became an event to talk about but not go through again.

One friend of mine, a big healthy ex-football player, strong as a bull and as bull headed, decided to buy a sail boat and sail the briny deep with his wife and kids. What I relate to you should teach you that sailing really requires study, instruction and experience.

This fellow looked over a lot of second hand boats. He found one to his liking, long and narrow, and the owner said that it had won lots of races so without consulting any of his sailor friends he bought it - and learned a lesson.

The boat had been high and dry for three years so in needed caulking, painting and rigging. He finally got that part done with the help of a few friends and a case of liquor. They put in a sling, in the water, for a few weeks and then he took it out of the sling and put in the water on its own - then it happened, it quietly sank to the bottom of the boat well spoiling his paint job and everything aboard. He had to have it lifted and put back on the sling and theoretically looked over and fixed up so it would stay on top of the water as it should. It eventually did but developed a trick of leaning over when you moved to one side of the boat, when the wind got into the sails it pretty nearly turned over so he had to call some body who knew boats. That some body found the boat had no ballast, in fact the owner had sold the ballast separately and forgot to mention it to by friend - so he had to buy some ballast which are usually old window weights - why, I don't know.

He got her on the lake, without his wife and kids, mainly because his wife refused to take a chance as she was a well educated woman. He made a few miles but couldn't get back to the boat club and the US Coast Guard came out and towed him back to the club. This is a very heart rendering event to any man and after he had been towed in about four times he decided life was too short to learn to sail. He sold her very cheap and went back to playing gin-rummy, cribbage and poker on the club porch as any man should who could not sail a boat.

This might make some people thing sailing wasn't so hot but just these things make it interesting and exciting - like a cowboy with a high strung horse that he learned to ride and love.