The Professionals Sail to Put-In-Bay - August 27–29, 2010

A Professional Mariner, Professional Videographer, Professional Physicist, Professional Ne'er Do Well had a terrific weekend sailing to South Bass Island's Put-In-Bay.  Val Schwarzmueller, Carl Truss, Ollie Browne, and myself (in that order) put together a fun weekend of sailing, motorsailing and motoring to take full advantage of another great summer weekend.

As you may know from our past logs and sails with Val and Ollie, both have been sailing several times with Kelly IV over the past 2 years.  Carl is new to Kelly IV this trip but was quickly adopted as crew when he jumped at his first chance to take the helm.  Carl's sailing experience is nowhere near as extensive as his camera work (he runs a camera for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh City Council, among many other venues) but he has sailed several times on Lake Arthur, Moraine State Park in Pennsylvania under the sailing instruction of Val, a certified instructor for the Moraine Sailing Club.  Val, you may recall was also one of Ollie's instructors in years past.

Carl at the helm, photo by Val

We gave Carl a challenging job at the helm since the Ne'er Do Well skipper (yours truly) was showing off and tried to raise all three sails, Genoa, Main, and Drifter.  After several attempts to keep all three sails filled and still maintain a proper course to avoid the reef at the Bay entrance and to clear Marblehead, discretion finally took the better part of valor and the drifter was doused and Kelly IV returned to normal sailing with genny & main.  Throughout the trials of raising and lowering the drifter, furling and unfurling the genny, running and rerunning the sheets for these two sails, Carl kept us off the reef at the mouth of Sandusky Bay as well as clear of the rocks at the Marblehead Lighthouse.  Thankfully, the wind was light (hence the interest in the Drifter) and waves were choppy, yet minimal, so the efforts of Ollie, Val and Carl to keep their befuddled skipper safely on board was a little easier than if the wind and waves would have been much higher.  I was scampering about the foredeck as if I was once again a youthful 25 year old and my old bones and muscles loudly complained about the abuse over the next few days.

Thanks to the light but steady breeze we were able to sail on a reach on Starboard tack without using the motor through the entire South Passage across the north of Marblehead and Catawba and south of Kelleys and South Bass.

Photo by Val

Val is quite the photographer himself and impressed us all by volunteering to take some dramatic video and stills while drifting behind Kelly in the little yellow dinghy.  As we let out the painter, one of the two connections holding the bridle to the painter let go!  Fortunately Val successfully reconnected it before any serious force came onto the bridle.  We were at risk of losing our connection to Val and the dinghy, but his quick action kept things well under control.  Even after this incident, Val said “hand me the camera bag”!  So I reached aft over the water bubbling off the stern and stretched so that Val might grab the bag securely with his own greatly outstretched grip.  Fortunately, the camera made it safely into the safe cocoon of Val’s arms and the photography commenced.  

Click Here for 5 minute video by Val

Ollie and Carl and I shifted sails, changed Kelly's direction and alerted Val to various powerboat wakes as he let us know where we should position Kelly for his various shots.  All this while Carl kept us on course as we sailed past Starve Island and the southern tip of South Bass Island and turned north east of Green Island.  When we turned north, we were able to trim the sails to close hauled which finally had us sailing an almost exhilarating beat into the ENE breeze.  After settling onto the new heading, we finally hauled the dinghy and Val back to Kelly and safely brought Val into the cockpit.

Ollie took his turn on the helm and sailed us all the way to a point SW of Middle Bass Island where he turned from Starboard Tack to Port Tack and headed straight into the anchorage at Put-In-Bay.  Given the fine weather and the fact that this was the final weekend of summer 2010 (except for Labor Day) it seemed that everyone was on the water.  

Ollie confirms, we always eat well aboard Kelly IV,
photo by Carl

There wasn't enough breeze for any waves, but the powerboats made up for it by creating a healthy and bouncy chop that we dealt with for the entire trip.  The crowds also meant there was a nearly full anchorage when we finally sailed into it.  As a result, we decided to rely on the motor for maneuverability as we dropped the anchor.  We each took what counts for a shower on Kelly IV (about 3 minutes of get wet, soap up, rinse off) and rowed the dinghy into shore.  Since 4 adults is about the max for the Portland Pudgy to carry, we spent a few minutes getting our weight balanced correctly.  This left the smallest crew, Ollie, in the “drivers” seat and so he rowed the three larger crew all the way in!  We got numerous comments from various other cruisers as Ollie worked his oars and pulled us into the rocky beach.  Fortunately, Ollie proved to be a strong and skillful rower so the trip was uneventful, except for the various comments we drew!

On shore, it was too late to show Carl the new-to-him Perry's Victory Museum.  Carl and his wife had visited Put-In-Bay 20 years ago.   He let us know that the changes were many and quite dramatic.  Apparently, PIB was much smaller, with fewer visitors, and significantly more quiet atmosphere when Carl and his wife had taken a ferry to the islands those many years ago.

Val and Murph, photo by Carl

We had dinner at the Irish Pub in town and an after-dinner brew at the Brew Pub on the next block.  When we rowed back, Val took the oars and valiantly pulled us to Kelly for a quiet evening on the anchor.

Sunday dawned bright but with a little more haze than Saturday, and even less wind.  Val took the wheel and steered us as we motorsailed all the way back to the Bay.  We stopped first at Battery Park to top off the diesel, then to Sandusky Harbor Marina to end the trip.

And it was a Great Trip!  Although the breeze was light, we still made it to PIB with very little motoring.  And the company was terrific!  With four great professionals, what would you expect!  :-)

Carl, and Ollie with Val at the helm