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The Boats that Kept us Afloat
By Chris Nilsen
The San Jauns are huge. The Islands themselves are not very large, but the area of water is immense. I have calculated it to be about 800 square nautical miles and about 1000 square miles. In our week of travel we covered only a small portion of this vast expanse. No, we didn’t use water wings, but sleek sailboats and a powerful tugboat. We are the Langley Middle School Adventure Education Program 2003, and this is ours, and the boats story.
The Mary L
Most people see a tugboat as the slow plodding and rather dim boat in the harbor. They are the grunt of nautical travel and are just plain boring. We found this to be untrue. With 65 tons of water displacement and a 9-knot cruising speed the boat required immense power to move. The twin engines are the originals with slight restoration. They each produce over 500 horsepower and were more than enough to move us around in the San Juans.
The Cutty Sark
The captain of this boat, Captain Stone was an interesting fellow. He had a vast knowledge of everything nautical and often told us of interesting origins of sailing terms and sailing stories. His own boat was borne of an Scottish poem in which a lad sees a rather skimpy skirt on a witch and yells “Well done Cutty Sark!” A very interesting tale and a very interesting boat. It is an older boat built with and older hull construcion and older technology. To make up for the years the boat has seen Capatain Stone has outfitted it with a laptop GPS system. It was highly accurate and could tell our location to the yard.
The Foreign Affair
This boat gets the most miles award. Captain Black has sailed all around the world on his fast racing sailboat. It has large sleeping quarters and a nice lounge. We played cards on our journeys and relaxed comfortably. When we journeyed into calm waters Captain Black let us steer the boat with a tiller. Unlike the Cutty Sark with its car-like steering wheel, the tiller is exactly the opposite. When you push it left it the boat goes right, and vice-versa. Once you got used to it, it became more natural and it felt just like and extension of your own arm.
All things said, I think that through all this diversity, we could really get the maximum experience of sailing. We went fast and slow. Over miles and yards. But whatever we were doing or wherever we were going we owe it all to our great teacher and organizer, Mr.Freundlich.
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