The Launch!

We tried for five years to keep our big boat in the water all year long, but after the last hurricane hit, we decided it was too dangerous. Even though we anchored the Day Dreamer in a big bay, the hurricane force winds, stood the boat on end and damaged the motor when salt water backed up through the exhaust system.

We had to sail the Day Dreamer across 113 miles of open ocean without a backup motor. That was enough of that.

Eight years ago, we sailed the boat back north and she is docked in Alameda as this piece is written.

However, we could not be without a sailboat in these beautiful waters, so we solved the problem with a smaller boat which we had sailed in the valley and in San Francisco Bay.

The Flying Dutchman is a 24-foot Buccaneer sailing sloop which was made by Bayliner back in the seventies. It has some outstanding attributes which make it perfect for the waters in southern  Baja, Mexico.

One of the reasons is the sailboat has a shoal keel or a short keel which allows it to sail in shallow water. The weight of the keel is the same as other boats but it is only two feet where other boats would need five or six feet to sail.

In Mexico there are not many launch ramps so we are forced to launch the Flying Dutchman off a sand beach. The critical factor is catching the exact highest tide to float the boat off the trailer.

The Flying Dutchman is hauled out of the water during the hurricane season (August and September). In mid October normally the hurricanes have passed so we relaunch without too much worry.

This year was no different. The boat sat well back off the water for the past five months. One tire was flat on the trailer and the outboard motor needed to be worked over to get started, but otherwise she seemed in pretty good shape.

For once there were no major hurricanes in our area this year. This was after having the worst hurricane ever, make a direct hit on our house last year. The boat survived even that, with its wheels sunk up to their hubs in sand. The weight of the keel kept it from being blow over.

High tide was seven in the morning and there was barely any daylight as we drove the Dutchman down the beach to the launching area. Years ago someone had poured a 20 ft. concrete slab just where the boats launched to keep the trailers from sinking into the mud.

This was just enough to put the boat in the water, but not enough to raise the boat off the trailer. That took a special trick. The trailer had to go off the ramp but the truck could remain in four wheel drive on the concrete. This was just enough normally to dislodge the boat from the trailer and float it free. But not this year and not this time. This time, try as we might, the boat wouldn’t break loose.

Then Kathy, who insisted there wasn’t really anything she could do, noticed that the cable from the trailer hitch to the boat had never been unhooked. Ooops! With the cable unhooked the Flying Dutchman slid off the trailer with ease. It took to the water like a duck and in no time was heading for its mooring buoy which was about 500 feet off shore.

We didn’t take her out for a sail the first day. Getting her launched was a big enough problem. Now she would need to be scrubbed and cleaned and made sure everything is in working order.

By the way, that’s where the term “ship shape” came from.