Southwinds Sailing June 2004 - Southwinds Magazine

Abandoned Boat Ramps in the Dark & Dancing Sailors:Know Your Nautical TermsBy Bruce SanspreeThis story is for allthe sailors outthere who havenon-sailors on theboat. My friend fromhigh school bought asailboat, a Catalina 22.He was moving upfrom a Newport 16.When we sailed in theNewport 16, things were very informal;however, with the Catalina wewere instructed to be more nautical.He wanted all the correct termsused such as port and starboard,stern and bow. When on the boatwe had to rehearse these for the newskipper. We decided to go out to alocal lake in October to sail a littleand camp out on the boat. This lakeis Belews Lake in North Carolina, aDuke Power lake mostly undeveloped.The tree line borders the lakeon all sides.We sailed all afternoon, usingcorrect nautical sailing terms. If Iused an incorrect term such as frontor back, he would correct me withfore and aft. If I noticed somethingon the left side, I would be correctedthat it was off the port bow. Halyards,jib sheets, tacking, point ofsail, jibbing, close hauling, beamreaching, and so the day went.As we went through theevening he insisted on using all thecorrect sailing terms. I was beginningto get the hang of it, at leastthe basic ones anyway. I shouldmention here that he is the sailorand I am not. The winds were calmSailboats in Belews Creek, NC.and the evening was turning darkwhen we decided to anchor for thenight. We were the only boat on thelake at this point. We were operatingunder outboard power as welooked for a place to anchor andspend the night.He let me take the tiller andpoint the Catalina toward an inlet.As trees surrounded the lake up tothe water line I was instructed tokeep an eye on the tree line andmake sure the trees stayed in the distance.He would go up to the bowand begin the anchoring process. Hesaid he would give me instructions.No problem I thought, as the treeswere in the distance.After a few seconds he began tojump up and down and shout, “Turnturn turn.” I was fairly sure that thiswas not a nautical term so I assumedhe was talking about the coastalbird or perhaps the song from the60s. I was trying to decide andwondered what is a coastal terndoing this far inland. “Where is it?”I called back. I was wondering whyhe was so excited about a bird. “No.”he shouted back. “Turn.” At onepoint jumping up and down andflapping his arms. I wasthinking he was trying toimitate the bird and wasa little confused as to why.Quite frankly, I was thinkinghe looked a little silly.I was racking my brain asto what nautical phrasethis might be.As I was trying to recallif he had ever been interestedin birds, I realized that we wereheading directly at the shore. Apparentlythere was a spot wherethere used to be a boat ramp, andthe tree line had been cut back 100yards from the shore. A black asphaltparking lot ran from the treeline to the water. We were about togo up the boat ramp. So I turned.As you can imagine, he assumedthis was my fault for notturning the boat when he directedme to do so. I held fast to the positionthat he did not use the correctnautical term of port or starboardas we had been using all day. Wejoked about this that night and intothe next day. Much discussion washad on the point of whether wewould tell our wives how close wecame to wrecking his new boat.So here is a lesson for all experiencedsailors who care abouttheir boats. Be very, very clearabout the instructions you give tothose novices on board who are assisting.They get confused. Youmay also want to be very clearabout where the old boat ramps arewhen anchoring.70June 2004 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindssailing.com