Naval Academy Sailing Trip Log June 24 – July 4, 2002 Well, our nine months of training with the US Naval Academy culminated in a two-week sailing trip from Annapolis, MD to Newport, RI and back to Annapolis. Karen and I served as volunteer coaches on 44-foot sailboats for Naval Academy midshipmen. Each boat was manned by two sailing coaches and eight midshipmen. Karen and I served as assistant coaches on different boats in the six-boat squadron. The midshipmen were comprised of two first classmen called, “Firsties” and six third classmen called “Youngsters.” Ideally, the 1/c men would have sailing experience and be capable of skippering the boat. On the contrary, however, they tend to be very inexperienced. In order to prepare them for the open ocean sailing, we spent one week sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, prior to our two week trip, to train and familiarize the crew with sailing in general and the Navy 44 sailboat in particular. Karen and I received nine months of training on the Navy 44 boats prior to working directly with the midshipmen. The boats could be described as primitive at best. The boats have ten crew and five bunks. The bunks are known as hot-bunks since as soon as one person goes on watch, the person getting off watch takes his/her place. In addition to sharing a bunk, two people share a sleeping bag. Some of he boats are co-ed. Karen had two female midshipmen on her boat. My boat was all guys. With only one head, privacy on co-ed boats is a problem. As you can imagine, there is very limited storage space. Each crewmember has one drawer to stow their gear. In addition, the head has a cubby for each crewmember. There is no table for eating, and meals and shift changes were totally chaotic. We started eating on plates but soon switched to putting everything in a single bowl. Since the midshipmen slept most the time they were not on watch, the living space wasn’t as congested as one might imagine, except at watch changes. The watches were set up as follows: 0600 to 1200 (6), 1200 to 1800 (6), 1800 to 2200 (4), 2200 to 0200 (4), 0200 to 0600 (4). This worked quit well with each crew on a different cycle each day. You had to train yourself to sleep at any time under any conditions. This was not a problem for me but proved to be a problem for Karen. Both Karen and I had sleeping shades to cover our eyes and ear plugs to block out the sound of a diesel engine running at 2000 rpm three feet from our head. With daytime temperatures in the 90’s, the cabin temperatures frequently exceeded 100º. This was aggravated by a stove during meals and a diesel engine when the winds were to low to sail or in the wrong direction to sail. We had to cover ourselves with sunscreen during the day, and there were no shower facilities so things got a little sticky and smelly after three days. We traveled 971 miles over water in 11 days. Two days were spent in Newport with nine days of sailing. That works out to approximately 108 miles per sailing day, which is not particularly a lot per day. A decent 24-hour sailing day is 120 miles or five knots for 24 hours. Our winds were variable out of the southwest. We moved quickly on the way up with winds on our aft quarter at 15-20 knots. When flying the spinnaker at 15 knots we ripped along at 7.5 knots. That lasted until the spinnaker exploded and ripped into two pieces. For the most part, the sailing was fairly straightforward. Fortunately, we had terrific weather with no rain and no storms. This was a great relief since on our last ocean sailing adventure we encountered a gale with 40-50 knot winds. Our only complaints on this trip were occasionally light winds, heat, and winds in the wrong direction. Our major learning experienced centered around night sailing. We made two night landfalls under very busy conditions, and we sailed through major shipping channels in New York City, Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay at night. We got as comfortable as one can get, which is never very comfortable, meeting very large ships in very narrow channels at night. Some very large ships, 500+ feet, display only two masthead lights and red and green navigation lights. The only way you can distinguish a ship’s masthead light from a white buoy light is that white buoy lights blink. The outline of the ship on a moonless night may not be visible until it is within several under feet. You must identify it by its lights and make early evasive action to avoid it. The actual track we followed was south from Annapolis to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (about 120 miles) near Norfolk, VA, then out into the ocean for a 350 mile run up to Newport. We were out of sight of land for three days and up to 100 miles off shore. We took a different route back to Annapolis sailing down Long Island Sound, through New York City, down the Jersey coast, and up the Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal. The C&D canal is a man made canal connecting the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake Bay. It allows a short path between the ports of NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The trip through New York City was nothing short of spectacular. We had no idea one could take a 65-foot-tall sailboat through NYC. We motor sailed under the Queensboro Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge before exiting the East River at lower Manhattan and viewing the Statue of Liberty. It was an awesome experience. After going under the Verrazono-Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn, we found ourselves in New York Harbor heading once again for the open ocean. After a near collision with a tugboat at Hell’s Gate, it was a welcome relief to see the open ocean again, even if it was at night. The arrival back in Annapolis was spectacular in its own right since we arrived back during the 4th of July fire works. Even though we were familiar with the area, the night landing in Annapolis proved to be the most challenging. There were hundreds of boats in the water heading for home as the fireworks were ending. The water surface was filled with hundreds of red and green lights moving in random motion making it extremely difficult to find the lighted buoys and dodge the fast moving powerboats. We made it back home safely, if not comfortably, and can’t wait to return to our favorite sailing grounds in the Caribbean.

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