Here is a link to the related BYYB photo album

 SE Fleet Spring Messabout

                   and 

              Boatshow

                                      '08

          

Wow it's hard to believe a whole year has past, and it's April already.

The South East Fleet of the Back Yard Yacht Builders Association gathered together at lake Hartwell this past weekend, and we had some good spring wind. It was windy every day (and night).

 Ed and Keith arrived a day earlier than anyone else so they may have a little more to tell than I.

It all begins with me arriving late (as usual) on Friday afternoon (early afternoon mind you). I used my new GPS unit  to get there, and it worked perfectly.

When I arrived in the "early" afternoon, Ed Jones the SE fleet Commodore greeted me. He showed me his new tent, and the awesome new bed that he built. That thing was state of the art.  It was easy to assemble, disassemble, and to transport. It looks comfortable to sleep on in a tent too. Here it is...

                       

After we said hello, and got caught up, Ed said we were to meet Keith out on the water in Ed's Boat.

 We heaved off the dock with little trouble. Man that wind was howling!  Ed's boat was really moving up the lake, between 3 and 5 knots for the most part, but there were some pretty hairy gusts.

 As we cruised up the lake, in moderate to some pretty heavy winds, we got caught up on the last year's events.  I enjoyed hearing some of Ed's salty stories. 

Ed handled the extreme conditions like a pro. Barking out orders to a discombobulated mate, to release this sheet and grab that sheet. We did fairly well.

We got about halfway up the lake when we saw Keith's sail on the horizon.

All of a sudden the wind really picked up and Fairwind began to heel and really move. We registered 6.1 knots on the GPS.  About this time Ed's tiller handle cracked . Ed wisely decided to turn Fairwind back to shore.  Ed noticed a leak, spying water on the floor of the cockpit.  It turned out the drain got flipped open and leaked a little bit. Keith and his friend John caught up to us...

 They told us they were heading back to the dock because John had to get home quickly.

 John you see is lucky enough to live on this beautiful lake, and have a beautiful sailboat as well...

 

We tacked back to the dock behind them. After a short while we saw another sail on the horizon and as it got closer, it turned out to be John sailing home. The pictures I took of that beautiful boat under sail did not come out,

We were having trouble on the port tack, so Ed fired up the ships engines, and we began to motor in.  The battery quickly lost power and I had to go below to switch out the batteries as quickly as possible. When I got the first one disconnected I heard Ed proclaim "Brian, were going sideways, hurry up!" So I got the second battery hooked up in a meatball sort of way and we got to the dock.

Keith met us at the dock. He carried Ed back to get his trailer while I stayed with the boat. It was quite relaxing just sitting at the dock reclined on Fairwind. They got back rather quickly, and we pulled Ed's boat out of the water and derigged her...

 

 

 (Sorry for the ugly mug, I allways make a funny face when doing a self portrait.)

 We got Fairwind road worthy and went back to the campground.

 While helping Ed break camp, David the park ranger of Hart State Park came down and helped Ed break camp and he even helped me get my tent up as I was having trouble with all the wind blowing the tent and fly.

 Dustin and his better half, Kaela, arrived about this time and set up camp next to my site. They brought their two Kayaks with them, I'm not sure if they ever got to use them? .

David and his staff are fantastic, they are very quick to help out and make your stay a memorable one.

David, his wife, Pam, and his assistant, Wendy, gathered with the South East Fleet. We all discussed Sailstice Weekend and planned the events that we are going to have over that weekend. It looks like it will be a great time. I suggest if you can get out there that you come on up. You won't want to miss it.

I cooked up a rack of ribs on the grill and while they slowly glazed over with BBQ sauce, I gave Keith an old time railroad lantern to thank him for letting me crew on his boat and for helping me with my build as well. I painted the lantern the color of Keith's boat. My wife etched Whippoorwill into the globe with the same font Keith used on his boat. Here is a photo of it with Dustin's hands and a little of Kaela in the background...

 Keith poured up some pints of some of the best Home Brew that ever graced your tankard! The ribs got done and we invited Dustin and Kaela on over for ribs and homebrew, and had quite a feast. Unfortunately my hands were so impregnated with bbq sauce I could not hold a camera, so I didn't get any more pictures of that evening.    

 We went down to the dock and hung out on the Whippoorwill.   We had a few pints, Keith having the first boat in the fleet with a fully functional cold keg and tap system .

 I awoke the next morning in my tent. And learned of a new fact about home brew, and primarily of the Yeast used in the brewing process. You see, the yeast stays active even after consumption . Long after consumption . When I emerged from my tent I had quite a view...

 I got up and cooked some bacon and eggs, and some potatoes O'Brian (Diced potatoes with peppers and onions cooked in a skillet). I found it to be quite misty, wet, and chilly. We met our neighbor a few camp sites down.  Carl and his Fiancée were a really nice couple and are to be married soon. Carl brought his boat up to the lake and was docked near Keith; he had a 1972 Nomad with a 455 rocket engine to power it. What a gorgeous boat it was. It sounded great too.

David came down to the campsite just after breakfast, and we all hung out for a bit, then after playing with my rc boat for a while, we decided it was time to hit the water.

David had the day off, and was going to go fishing but decided to go sailing with us. Dustin and Kaela stayed behind to wait for Brian and Martha Watford to get in. Here are the few photos I got out on the water.

Here is David and I on the Whippoorwill, me at the helm, David manning the Main sheet and checking his Blackberry for the weather report.

 

 We were heading down the lake when we noticed this storm (behind me) in the picture, brewing up in front of us. Keith decided to turn back to home port. The storm broke up rather quickly. So we turned about to messabout the lake some more .

We heard the report of cannon fire  And I radioed the pirate vessel Sunshine. Just off our starboard stern, and asked if they were firing on us. We loaded our cannon, then Keith fired on the P/ V Sunshine. After a brief but violently loud battle we all got together and had a blast sailing in the perfect winds we had, pretty much all weekend.

Here is the dread pirate Watford and his murdurous crew of cutthroats...

Here is Dustin at the helm, And Cpt. Brian Barking out orders to his crew...

 As you can see, he is happiest when disciplining the crew... 

And here is a shot taken from the P/ V Sunshine of the whippoorwill, crewed by Keith David, and Myself...

 We Messed about the lake for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, after which we all gathered at my campsite for a fantastic Lupper, (lunch & supper).

David brought down some of the best deer steaks I have ever eaten, and I threw on a couple packs of brats and Keith of course some of his awesome strange brew.

We feasted as we talked more of the up and coming Sailstice. We all enjoyed each other's company and stories since last we all met.

The afternoon wore on and about four or five o’clock we all decided to get out on the water for one more sail of the day. This time I crewed Brian Watford's Sunshine.

We had a little trouble getting launched. But some good hearted teenager's on a Jet Ski, gave the old men a shove off the dock, and once the wind filled our Sails we were flying up the lake.

 Here is The dread Pirate, Captain Watford.

 We caught up to Keith and his merry band of cutthroats...

 (this is my favorite shot this trip)

  As we prepared to come about, Keith and crew headed back in the direction of the dock...

  Ok here is where my story gets a bit hairy.The wind was a bit much this evening, we were flying. We decided to head back to the dock ourselves. There was no trouble (yet) it was just getting late, the sun was hanging low and we had no Navigation lights.

 We could still see Keith off the port bow in the sinking sun, far off in the distance. When all of a sudden a more than puckering gust hit. We were just talking, enjoying the ride when all of a sudden I was standing on the port gunwale of the boat and the starboard deck just behind my ear. The water was cresting my sneakers and just trickling in to the cockpit (good thing I used the latrine before we went out this evening).

When my brain finally grasped what just transpired I had no idea what to do. I looked in the direction of Brian on the stern and was horrified as my eyes zoomed in to the main and mizzen sheets cleated off on horn cleats . Brian was trying to untie the sheets, water was coming in, and I was about to go swimming in some really cold water.

Brian let go of the tiller and we quickly came about into the wind. We quickly untied the sheets and Brian decided it was too much wind to sail in so we wrapped the sails up around the masts with much difficulty. The wind was whipping the sails, which in turn were whipping us. We tried to signal Keith with the cannon, as I thought I forgot my cell at the campsite. The first shot the wind blew the charge out of the cannon, and sounded pitiful. The second shot was successful, but alas, the wind blew the sound in the opposite direction. Brian decided we would use auxiliary power. Oars! I volunteered to row us back to the dock it wasn't too far off, just around the bend.

I was rowing and rowing etc. etc. etc. When Brian grabbed the other oar and took one side. After a time of it, we looked to see our progress. Instead of being close to the ramp, the wind blew us down the lake in the opposite direction. Regardless of our efforts.

Ok what to do... We began to re-rig Sunshine with much difficulty, as the wind was whipping us around as well as all the rigging.

It was a heck of a fight, and in the middle of it I realized my cell was in my pocket!

I called Keith, who was on shore already, and told him of our dire situation. He asked if we needed a tow. At this precise time Brian and I got the boat rigged and under control, so we told him to stand by.

We got to moving quite well back in, but the sun was really sinking fast.

And the moon was on the rise...

 

Temperatures were dropping as well, and we only had our BYYB tee-shirt’s on.

We called Keith back and said we needed a tow back as it was getting to dark to be on the water without lights. He in turn got in touch with Wendy, the ranger’s assistant who got the keys to the Park pontoon boat...

 The intrepid rescuers arrive on scene...

Here are a few Photos taken of sunshine from the pontoon boat by Kaela. I will try to interpret them as well as possible...

This one, I cannot explain, as I have no idea...

  Here I am fighting gravity...

  Readying the Heaveing line...

 

 Retracting the heaving line as I missed on my first throw...

 Ready the line again...

 That one reached them and off to the ramp we went...

  We were deposited at the ramp by our rescuers. And met by Martha, Brian's better half, with the truck and trailer at the ramp.

 

We got Sunshine on the trailer and roadworthy. They came back to the campsite briefly to say goodbye. By this time it was near nine o’clock, we hung out had a couple of pints I picked my guitar for a bit and went over and spent the rest of the evening at Dustin and Kaela’s nice warm campfire.

They even had smores, the Main campfire staple.

The next morning I woke up cooked some more bacon and eggs, cleaned up and broke camp. When Carl stopped over and offered Keith and I a ride on his Boat that I previously mentioned...

 

  

 We motored out a (little) bit and Carl put the hammer down on that 455 rocket. I did not get any photos, as I was too busy holding the O-S handle, I happened to notice Keith doing the same, we were flying on that thing, it was awesome. We must have been doing like 70 mph. After a quick boat ride Carl brought us back to the dock where Keith and I boarded Whippoorwill to get her to the ramp. We pulled her out and de-rigged her. Then we hit the road back to Mundania.

It was an absolutely great messabout. Fun was had by all who attended. Unfortunately, the boat show that was scheduled by the Blue Ridge chapter of the antique Boat club was canceled. They missed a great weekend.

I cannot wait to see all Y'all at Sailstice. If you support home boat building, or even have a home built boat. Come on down and show it off.

I enjoyed my weekend immensely. There is nothing better than getting out on the water with fellow enthusiasts. Thank you SE Fleet for another great weekend.

  

       Brian.