Isla Topar

April 9, 2007

Posición 50º11′ Sur, 74º49′ Oeste

Isla Topar

Ridiculous Moments in Sailing, Part 1:

Today I thought I’d be real tricky and get a line around a tree without even using the dinghy. There was deep water right up to the wall, with a few promising trees sticking out. I nosed Condesa in, ran up to the bow, checked it all out, and it seemed do-able.

I got my longest shoreline ready to go with a loop tied in the end, and nosed Condesa in again. There was a merciful pause in the williwaws. I poked the line around the tree with the boat hook, hooked the loop and pulled it back. Ha, I’d done it. I just had to pull the looped end back and run it out so that both ends terminated on Condesa, then I could just slip one end when it was time to go.

I ran the line out and it came taut, with Condesa exactly 225 feet away from the tree, because my rope is 450 feet long. I could now use the tree as a pivot point to maneuver Condesa and anchor the bow. As I was doing this Condesa uprooted the poor tree and pulled it into the water.

Now I’d lost my pivot point and was in a bit of a tight spot, plus I had 450 feet of line-and a tree-in the water to further crowd my movements. The only way forward was to motor out of the caleta and out into the seno where I had some sea room to untangle the mess. This was about an eighth of a mile.

So there I was, motoring down a seno, towing a tree: a moment of intense seamanship transformed into a moment of intense silliness. It was a good sized tree too, plenty of dry green foliage above water, flowers, moss; a whole arboreal ecosystem voyaging down the seno. I swear to God a bird almost landed on it while it was in tow, but then thought better of it.