Harbor Trip: With a Little Help From My Friends

Motoring underneath the MBTA Railroad Bridge
with the mast down.

On August 28, we took two Lynxes on a harbor trip to Spectacle Island. It was marked by a lot of equipment failure, but we made it out and back safely despite the problems. It all started when our yoke broke. (The yoke helps hold the gaff to the mast.) We'd just stepped our mast and raised sail.  We did a slow, gentle jibe in very light air when a bolt fell out of the yoke! It turned out that the bolts were older copper bolts, and were due to be replaced anyway.  

We lowered our sail and started our engine. Since Tom's boat was also out on the harbor, we decided to keep going under power. We had another boat nearby if we had engine trouble, and that way we could help him out if anything happened. It's always nice to have backup! We motored down the Sculpin Ledge channel, around Spectacle Island and back to the docks. While we were waiting for Tom, we hiked up the South Drumlin, and saw his boat sailing towards the docks. They dropped their sail, but then raised it again.  We heard on the radio that their engine had died!  So we helped them dock their boat and had lunch together on the island to decompress.

After lunch, we decided to tow Tom's boat back. We rigged a towing bridle from side cleat to side cleat, and then tied the painter to the bridle. Someone had to manage the bridle the whole time to stop it from knocking the engine, but it worked pretty well. We made it safely back and certified Simon as a new Lynx harbor skipper!