The weather was beautiful, if windless.
Perfect for this gathering of cruisers and those planning to go
cruising. Kelly IV and I motored to and from the Gam {gam (găm) n.
: A social visit or friendly interchange, especially between sailors
or seafarers. Per
the SSCA}.
The Seven Seas Cruising Association
(SSCA)
is a great group for those who take their small boats along the
coasts and across the world's oceans. It has similarities to the
Great Lakes Cruising Club (GLCC)
of which I am also a member. Both provide a number of excellent
benefits including “local knowledge*” and local support (SSCA:
Port Guides and Cruising Stations; GLCC: Harbor Reports and Port
Captains) and online seminars (SSCA: Seven
Seas University; GLCC: GLCCSchool)
with great topics and instructors. As the two names suggest, SSCA
covers salt water venues while the GLCC addresses the sweetwater seas
of the Great Lakes.
I met sailors and trawler owners who
are just starting out and others who have crossed several oceans.
All were friendly and eager to share and learn from each other. We
enjoyed seminars covering sail
trim, rigging,
SSB
radios, travelling frugally on the ICW,
towing and salvage, mail forwarding, NOAA weather forecasting, and a
truly inspiring talk presented with wonderful photos by world cruiser
and author, Beth
Leonard. She is a friendly, easy going and
highly skilled sailor with globe circling experience that includes
the arctic and Southern Oceans as well as the tropics.
And like a few other trips this year
and earlier (one,
two,
three,
four),
Kelly IV was nearly involved in a bit of a scrape. Upon returning to
Kelly IV by dinghy on Friday night, I discovered that the catamaran
anchored ahead of me seemed much closer than when I had left in the
morning. As I rigged my anchor light I noticed the catamaran was in
fact dragging so I hopped in the trusty pudgy
and banged on the cat's hull as she dragged past Kelly IV. It was
lucky that they missed Kelly IV when they dragged by as the cat was
easily twice the weight/displacement of Kelly IV. Having a yacht
that large bump into petite, little Kelly IV would have been ugly.
The skipper ran to his helm station immediately and re-anchored so
all was well in just a few minutes.
*local
knowledge.
First hand familiarity with a body of water that goes beyond what may be found on a nautical chart; as in: When arriving at a
small, unknown harbor they hailed a local fishing vessel for local
knowledge on how to negotiate the channel.
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