Last Thursday, late at night, I picked up two of my other cousins, the Shury boys, and headed to the dock. I hadn’t seen Joey and Vince for a while, as they had missed a couple family get togethers. Vince was reluctant to go and so we left without him, but he called us up and we turned around to go get him. His parents had influenced him. We picked up some McDonald’s for Vince and Paul. Paul was at the boat waiting for us. The sky looked cloudy and it was mighty late, so we decided to wait till morning to go out. We set alarms for 7:30 (all but me using cell phones) and slept on the boat. It was difficult for me to get to sleep. The front of the boat had recently been painted and smelled strongly of paint. The boat was rocking and making quite a splooshing noise. Joey was snoring for a while. The mast was making a weird vibration noise for a while. Once I finally fell asleep though, I slept well.
At 7:30 it was raining. After shutting of several alarms, we went back to sleep. We finally woke up for good at 11:30 at the behest of Vince, who really had to go to the bathroom. After hitting the head, we headed out for breakfast and Paul’s house. As it was stilling raining, we were thinking there was a possibility of no boating for the day. We ate at Tim’s restaurant. We had to ask for the breakfast menus. They had some pretty good pancakes with real blueberries. They were very filling. At Paul’s house, him and Vince took a shower. I looked at a Campmor catalog.
We decided we were definately going back to he boat, as the rain had stopped and the weather forecast looked good enough. We got a few more life preservers to handle our larger crew. We headed back, me with Vince and Paul with Joey. Paul took a different route to pick up his friend who’s in the coast gaurd, Rem. I got a little lost, as our normal route was under construction. I beat in the general direction of the dock, and eventually met up with I-90, which took us to the right place. Paul beat us by just a little bit.
By this point, the sky was looking bright, though still overcast. We motored on out. There was a lot of wood and other debris floating by the mouth of the river from the recent storms, and some herons and other birds were making use of it for perching. We had to do some manuevering. Once out on the lake, we raised the main. The wind was not very strong and rather intermittent, making it hard to move. It would change direction a lot. We flew the jib as well to try to grab some more wind. The sky cleared and it became quite sunny. The wind slowly started picking up, and we got a little better sailing in. We contacted my brother, who was to also contact my parents to potentially all come up to the boat. Rem drank a bit of the alcohol collection we had aboard. We told them a little bit about sailing, especially about tacking and jibing. It’s somewhat hard to sail with guests who don’t know much about this, as the boom in the smaller boats we sail can be very dangerous, and so we have to be especially careful when doing it. I was striving to avoid doing it. We headed back in to port to get some food, drop off Rem, and pick up more party members. The landing was easy with all five of us there.
Jamie finally called back after we got to port. Him and his girlfriend Chelsie were coming up, but not my parents. Paul took Rem home and got his own food while I took Joe and Vince to McDonald’s. The guy there screwed up mine and Joey’s orders. He ordered a double cheeseburger, medium fries, and mcchicken sandwich. I ordered a double cheeseburger and value fries. He was given a double cheeseburger, mcchicken, and value fries. I was given a single cheeseburger, medium fries, and medium beverage. The guy overheard us and gave me a double cheeseburger in place of the single one. I’m still rather confused about the whole transaction, but the food was alright and filled me up for a bit. They guy also possibly snuck a hundred for the drawer, as the reciept of Joey’s said he gave 106 and was given change of 100.21. He had only given the guy six dollars.
Joey and Vince were making fun of Paul for how often and emphatically he mentioned that Rem was in the coast guard while talking about him. They continued to do this while not around him for the rest of the night. It made it more funny to me every time he said it.
We headed back to the boat, and Paul was already there. He had picked up his buddy Jeff, the guy who was on my last voyage, as well. We waited on the boat. My brother and Chelsie showed up walking along the main dockway. I ran to let them in. Chelsie seemed nervous about the boat from the outset. We motored out with the sun starting to set. Vince fell asleep in the bow and Jeff handled the music as me and Paul handled the boat. The wind had picked up pretty good over the lake, though it hadn’t seemed like it on the land. We raised the main. We were going along at perhaps 3 mph. We raised up the jib so we’d have it up before dark. The wind had picked up and now we were able to really go fast. We were able to get up to 7mph without much difficulty, though we maxed at 7.2 for the entire night. It was again fast enough that I was worried about controlling it. It was fairly easy to get a good heel going. Chelsie seemed fairly scared, especially while we raised the sails, heeled, and later when we tacked and jibed. We did probably one move across the wind with the jib up before taking it down. Paul took control for a little as well, but no one else would. I took the jib down, though it quickly became apparent that I needed a hand in the high winds. Jeff and Joey came to my aid, showing me the advantage of a larger crew. By then it was quite dark out.
With the jib down again, we were going at a much more comfortable pace with little heel. Jamie even took control for a while, and we told him some of the basics of sailing. We sailed around a bit, then decided to head back so Chelsie and Jamie wouldn’t get home too late (Chelsie had to work at 10 the next morning). Jamie sailed her back. We went right up to the break wall under sail. We had trouble getting the main down. It was difficult in the dark with the high winds to fold it properly, so it became a bit of a mess. We motored on in and it was again rather difficult to see anything. Paul controlled us into the dock. It was hard to see at first, and the wind had quite an affect on our movement. Our first attempt failed, and we had to circle and try again. With all of us there to grab the dock, it was rather easy. Jamie and Chelsie left right away. Soonafter I left with Joe and Vince. Paul and Jeff planned to sleep the night on the boat there.
I took Joe and Vince back to their home and talked to Aunt Terry and Uncle Scott again for a bit. Their dogs were barking incesantly for a while though, making it hard to talk. I then headed off by myself. I somehow managed to go in the wrong direction, and found myself back at I-480. I decided to take advantage of my location by learning the roads a little better. I took an alternative route home: 480 east to 71 south to 21 to Brecksville.