What happens when the plan works …

The last month has been a whirlwind of testing, maintenance work, training, inspections and sailing for me. This is mostly on the Claud W. Somers, the 1911 Chesapeake Bay skipjack that I’m fortunate enough to be a captain on, but also my practical exam for International Sailing License and Credentials (SLC). The latter was done through JR Sailing Education of Annapolis, MD and allows me to bareboat charter a sailboat in Europe. I finished the on-line portion while deployed to Bahrain and took the on-water practical to complete the licensure requirements. It was an excellent day on the water and at the end of it I was much more confident in Mediterranean mooring than before.

For the Somers, the entire crew has been preparing the vessel for her US Coast Guard inspection, which involved both clearing an outstanding worklist and also conducting underway drills. We’ve been sailing twice per month and working the rest of the time to get the Somers into the best shape possible. Finally the day came and we did it… Captain Steve Heare was on task for the day, while I was mate/senior deckhand. The inspection team went through the repair items first, then document inspection, then we got underway to do an MOB drill. The crew, having done no less than eight  MOB drills or walkthroughs in the last two months were well prepared and executed flawlessly. The underway hull inspection found no leaks and we did a walkthrough of emergency response to a fire while dockside.

That was Wednesday, then Friday I was asked to take out the Elva C. for the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum Friday night party Cocktails on the Creek. She’s a fifty five foot deck boat, also called a buy boat in the oyster trade, and she is an exemplar of the type of work horse vessel which hauled material and cargo of all sorts up and down the Chesapeake Bay. The only problem was, I’d never set foot on her before. None the less, the regular captain gave me a brief intro to her systems, then I took out passengers with just two crew who had also never set foot on her. And it worked, I actually figured out how to dock her by backing and filling using idle ahead and astern.

Then the next day I was captain on the Somers for her first passenger sail in two years. That also went great and we were able to sail in a light breeze from the west, tacking back and forth in Ingram Bay. At one point we had the sails balanced and I walked away from the wheel to check if something was fouled aloft and the boat tracked perfectly on course. One of the passengers asked about it and I realized I’d done one of the things that I admired in captains from my days on the schooner Pioneer: the instinctual knowledge of what your boat will do under sail. We had a fairly routine docking, my best so far to be honest, and it was obvious that the passengers and crew had a great time.

When I started this in March, agreeing to take over as co-captain of the Somers with Steve, I had set an expectation that we would sail the Somers on a consistent basis, unless the weather said no. I knew that consistency would bring about competency in a crew that had largely never sailed on the boat before. I also hoped that those two things would bring about camaraderie … and they did. When we took out the US Coast Guard team, the entire crew showed up, despite the fact we could only take four deckhands. They were all there when we left the dock and they were there when we got back to celebrate. And they’re good sailors, a mix of ordinary and able seamen, lubbers no more. And my skill level is improving commensurate with theirs. It’s really rewarding to see and gratifying to know that I'm upping my game as well.

The next step for all of us is continuous improvement, but I’ve got to get more intentional about it. More to come …