Seven Seas Cruising Association Gam, Annapolis.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 1 Oct 2012 12:55

Thurs & Friday – 27th & 28th Sept

 

We got a few boat jobs done, sadly 'extra' jobs ie ones not already on "the list".   Iain Simpson has much to answer for, this time he emailed to say they have cleaned out all their bilges - a quick peer into ours revealed mildew fields.  So I spent the day lying on my stomach, sniffing bleach and scratching my hands.  Although I did have a panic attack when suspended upside down into a very deep locker and had to be dragged out by Rob, who took over.  Rob spent much of the day nursing backache but did some carpentry jobs.

 

Every so often a member of the SSCA would come by to introduce themselves, including Evans Starzinger (Beth Leonard's partner) who had spotted our OCC flag and as a co-member had rowed over to say hello.  We later went on his boat to have a look at his Code Zero headsail and how he deals with it.  Evans was also very helpfully forthcoming with sailmakers to approach and the types of material they will use and their suitability for our type of cruising.   And he and Rob got to sing the praises of Rocna anchors of course!

 

Mid-afternoon Rob watched a large ketch run solidly aground and fail to get off.   We then went off to meet Jeff and Karen Siegel of ‘Active Captain’ fame and on our return we offered our assistance to the team lead by Evans who had moved and re-anchored his own yacht ‘Hawk’ to try and shift the ketch on a falling tide.   So Rob and I took turns on winching the tow line, Rob with his delicate back - but this seems to have been the magic recovery trick for him at least!   Various other techniques were tried, one of which ended with me doing a very inelegant flop into the water to rescue a fast sinking heavy line that had sprung untied.   You would not believe the colour of the water that I rinsed my clothes in and the informed recommendations were to disinfect my ears as well.   And after all this we were not successful in our attempts, but the boat in question got up at 0200 hours for the next high tide and comfortably and quietly motored themselves off!

 

In the evening David and Candy on Endeavour (and speakers at the Gam) came over for a drink.  They are very much the reason we are here as we met them in Washington and were persuaded by them to come along.   The programme of talks all sounds very interesting particularly the input from the Siegels with yet more new technological possibilities.   Although much of the weekend is aimed at first timers leaving the US via the ICW for the Bahamas - and leaving behind all the delights of western (US) culture (we would argue that the Bahamas is hardly 3rd world!).   Surprisingly we are so far the only foreign flagged boat here and so I felt that Rob with his heckling tendencies did need to be reminded that he was less inconspicuous then usual when we joined a dinghy tie-up behind Chardonnay on the 2nd evening for an informal question and answers session.....

 

We spent some of Thursday extracting items from various areas of deep and inconvenient stowage on board Serafina to offer up for the Treasures of the Bilge sale on Sunday morning, which inevitably leads to discussion about changing the way we do certain things on the boat and this time, whether we opt to get a Code Zero headsail made during the winter and if a Hookah system for swimming under the hull would be more useful than our sub aqua tank - watch this space.

 

Friday was the official start of the Gam and we took the opportunity to sign up to join the SSCA and were presented with big badges with our details on and then got a couple of fluorescent ribbons to also attach which marked us out as first-timers to the Gam and trans-Atlantic sailors - we felt like show dogs with rosettes!   At lunchtime we sat with Scott and Freddi, who have Nigel Calder staying on board and he filled us on all the gossip about Orust, Sweden and the financial states of the various boatbuilders there.   Then in the afternoon we listened to Nigel's talk on how reliable your charts or chart plotter displays really are.  Elements of this talk I think we had heard as part of the Blue Water Round The World seminar in London but now it all makes a whole load more sense and is far more pertinent, or perhaps we are a bit more receptive as at that time we had other boating priorities.  I went back to the boat to cook pizza (homemade as well!) while Rob then took in the insurance talk; then back ashore for drinks and a pot luck supper - the poor staff had great difficulty in breaking up the party and throwing us out into the teeming rain to dinghy home.

 

Biggest excitement of the day: David and Candy went out to their boat mid pm and when they got back into their dinghy a small beige and black garter snake appeared out of their outboard engine, tried to make an escape, took one look at the sea and beat a hasty retreat back into the engine where it got a lift ashore!   Apparently not venomous, but bites and craps profusely when handled - nice.