Weeeeee!
We also went sailing with Cody's brother Ross and his kid, Wyatt, who was about 2 1/2 at the time. I love Ross. Seriously, he's great. He's also super smart, and he definitely knows more about sailing than me. But, when he said, "Can I try?" and took the rudder out of my hand 2 minutes after I'd taken the helm I almost pushed him off the boat (I may have a slight tendency to overreact. Also, I don't share well with others - symptom of being an only child). Then Cody gave Wyatt our safety whistle, and if you've ever been around a 2 year old with a noise maker you'll know how that ended. It was a stressful day. But still, we love taking people out on the boat.
One Saturday in May we decided to spend our first night aboard Tri-oomph. We headed out when I got off of work and sailed over to Plum Island Sound, about an hour away, and dropped anchor. It was pretty late and getting dark so we cooked some food and went to bed.
As it was our first time anchoring Tri-oomph for any length of time there were, of course, things we could have done better. We anchored right in the middle of the channel so the current was really strong all night. Trimarans like to do what we call the "Trimaran Dance" when anchored in a current. They swing back and forth on the anchor line, and not just a little bit. (We recently found a trick to minimize the movement - leaving the rudder down. I imagine monohulls don't move so much because of that big keel.) Also, our boat is noisy at night! Even tied down the boom moves around and creates a lot of metallic noises, and the wind moves through the backstay and creates an incredibly eerie howling noise. We found tricks to almost eliminate the noises as we spent more nights on board. Also, we've become smarter about not anchoring right in the narrowest area of a channel where the tide will be ripping in and out.
Also, the ocean is scary! I'd wake up hearing the water against the hull and pretty much thing we were sinking. It's one thing waking up in your tent and hearing a bear rummaging through your camping food, it's another thing thinking you're in a coffin sinking to the bottom of the ocean. But after more time on our trusty trimaran I've come to realize that she's not going to sink, at least not at random while we're sleeping.
The last part that made sleep difficult is the bunk situation. Our boat has two wing berths, a v-berth in the front, and a claustrophobic little coffin sleeper aft. We each started out on a wing berth - the port side berth is narrower, so I took that one. The previous owners didn't seem to have any trouble with the size of the bed, but I quickly grew uncomfortable and moved into the v-berth, but oriented myself so my head and shoulders were sticking out into the cabin so I could move around without hitting my shoulders on things. It was actually super comfortable. Cody, on the other hand, felt that the starboard berth was still too narrow for him. If he lays flat on his back his left shoulder hangs over the edge. After a couple of nights like this over the course of the summer we eventually switched spots, and he was much happier with the v-berth. (We're currently working on building a double berth that folds out across the cabin so we both have more room and we can snuggle.)
Anyway, after a slightly restless night of sleep we awoke to the most gorgeous morning, sunshine and a flawless view of Great Neck and Plum Island. Absolutely beautiful. Much like backpacking, there's nothing I find more joyful than waking up outdoors. We made coffee and oatmeal, and sat out on the trampoline in the sunshine. And then . . . ! Cody proposed to me, and gave me my beautiful wooden ring. How could life get any better?
Eventually we packed up and decided to head out and try out the spinnaker because we had a great steady breeze out of the North and we could go on a run back into Essex Bay.
Wanna know a great way to put a damper on a perfectly wonderful morning? Try rigging up a spinnaker that you've never used before and have no idea how to set up. In choppy waters. While you have to pee. After three failed attempts I found myself sitting on the bow trying to untangle our hopelessly tangled spinnaker from the forestay, bobbing up and down, cold, hungry, and with a full bladder (the camp toilet wasn't set up at the time). "Enough!" I said. "It's time to go home." But we were still happy and it had been a nice day on the water even without the spinnaker.
The tide was out and we had to anchor Tri-oomph at Conomo Point and call for a ride. The fun upshot of that was that when Tucker picked us up we got to tell him our exciting news!
One Saturday in May we decided to spend our first night aboard Tri-oomph. We headed out when I got off of work and sailed over to Plum Island Sound, about an hour away, and dropped anchor. It was pretty late and getting dark so we cooked some food and went to bed.
As it was our first time anchoring Tri-oomph for any length of time there were, of course, things we could have done better. We anchored right in the middle of the channel so the current was really strong all night. Trimarans like to do what we call the "Trimaran Dance" when anchored in a current. They swing back and forth on the anchor line, and not just a little bit. (We recently found a trick to minimize the movement - leaving the rudder down. I imagine monohulls don't move so much because of that big keel.) Also, our boat is noisy at night! Even tied down the boom moves around and creates a lot of metallic noises, and the wind moves through the backstay and creates an incredibly eerie howling noise. We found tricks to almost eliminate the noises as we spent more nights on board. Also, we've become smarter about not anchoring right in the narrowest area of a channel where the tide will be ripping in and out.
Also, the ocean is scary! I'd wake up hearing the water against the hull and pretty much thing we were sinking. It's one thing waking up in your tent and hearing a bear rummaging through your camping food, it's another thing thinking you're in a coffin sinking to the bottom of the ocean. But after more time on our trusty trimaran I've come to realize that she's not going to sink, at least not at random while we're sleeping.
The last part that made sleep difficult is the bunk situation. Our boat has two wing berths, a v-berth in the front, and a claustrophobic little coffin sleeper aft. We each started out on a wing berth - the port side berth is narrower, so I took that one. The previous owners didn't seem to have any trouble with the size of the bed, but I quickly grew uncomfortable and moved into the v-berth, but oriented myself so my head and shoulders were sticking out into the cabin so I could move around without hitting my shoulders on things. It was actually super comfortable. Cody, on the other hand, felt that the starboard berth was still too narrow for him. If he lays flat on his back his left shoulder hangs over the edge. After a couple of nights like this over the course of the summer we eventually switched spots, and he was much happier with the v-berth. (We're currently working on building a double berth that folds out across the cabin so we both have more room and we can snuggle.)
Anyway, after a slightly restless night of sleep we awoke to the most gorgeous morning, sunshine and a flawless view of Great Neck and Plum Island. Absolutely beautiful. Much like backpacking, there's nothing I find more joyful than waking up outdoors. We made coffee and oatmeal, and sat out on the trampoline in the sunshine. And then . . . ! Cody proposed to me, and gave me my beautiful wooden ring. How could life get any better?
Eventually we packed up and decided to head out and try out the spinnaker because we had a great steady breeze out of the North and we could go on a run back into Essex Bay.
Wanna know a great way to put a damper on a perfectly wonderful morning? Try rigging up a spinnaker that you've never used before and have no idea how to set up. In choppy waters. While you have to pee. After three failed attempts I found myself sitting on the bow trying to untangle our hopelessly tangled spinnaker from the forestay, bobbing up and down, cold, hungry, and with a full bladder (the camp toilet wasn't set up at the time). "Enough!" I said. "It's time to go home." But we were still happy and it had been a nice day on the water even without the spinnaker.
The tide was out and we had to anchor Tri-oomph at Conomo Point and call for a ride. The fun upshot of that was that when Tucker picked us up we got to tell him our exciting news!
Dear Marian and Cody. We Are So happy for you two. I actually cried when I heard this story. We loved all the quirks on Trioomph and know you will too. Nothing like forgetting to tie down a loose halyard at night! We often thought we'd make a double bed too but as we usually cruised with 4, we just didn't. Glad you love the boat and we can't wait to follow your adventures.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Carleen
F-22 "Raise a Little Hull"