Welcome to our ship's log for Kidogo, our 1986 19 foot West Wight Potter sailboat, HMS hull #380. We bought her on March 13, 1999, and took her out for the first time on March 21. This page is intended to be a journal of our family's adventures learning to sail Kidogo. My name is Scott, my wife is Emily, and our 21 month old daughter is Anna Kate. We live in the Charleston, South Carolina area.
3/13/99 - Saturday - We finally get the boat!
This is it! After 5 years of scrimping, saving, and extra jobs on weekends and nights, we finally have her. Kidogo is beautiful. On the drive home from picking her up, I think I spent more time looking at her in the rear view mirror than at the road! Good thing Emily's dad (Paul) was with me, because when we got home, I needed all the help I could get backing it into the backyard. Our gates opened to a width of 7'4", and the boat was 7'6". Something had to give. We ended up taking the doors off and squeezing it through with a whisker to spare. I'll never be able to do it again, although Emily swore she could direct just as well as her dad. I'm going to have to do something about that gate.
3/14/99 - Sunday - Laughing in the rain
I wanted to get the boat into the water today, but it was not to be. I made 3 trips to the store for carb cleaner, etc. to get the motor running again, but Paul and I could not do it. We bought the motor with only a few hours on it four years ago, in anticipation of the boat. The problem is that it has been sitting in my mother's basement all this time without being cranked. I made the fatal error of leaving the gas in it, and it has coated the carb with varnish. Hopefully I can get it fixed next week. Late in the afternoon I was just sitting in the cockpit, checking out the sail slugs, when it began to rain. As my clothes became soaked, I just leaned my head back and laughed! I am positive our neighbors think I am insane, but I don't really care. It's here! It's really here!
3/20/99 - Saturday - The first sail (motor?)
We practiced rigging Kidogo in the backyard all week, got the outboard serviced, and dealt with a last-minute sail slug emergency. It became obvious that whoever put the slides on the mainsail had not tested them, because they would not even fit up the slot in the mast. I had to make late night emergency runs to Boater's World and West Marine to get the proper sized slides and stainless shackles (1 inch) to attach them with quickly - the slides were sewed on before. Anyway, we were ready to head out Saturday afternoon for our first time on the water with Kidogo. Our first mistake was trying to put in for the first time at a public boat ramp on one of the first decent boating days of the year. It was extremely busy, and power boats of all sorts were all over us, even heckling and insulting us (being a sailboat). We fully rigged in the designated area of the parking lot. The rigging took about an hour, but at least it went fairly smoothly. If we had not put everything up at least once in the backyard before going, we would have been in big(er) trouble!
At launch time, the wind started kicking up and the incoming current was very strong through the Wapoo cut, the location of the boat landing. Of course when we tried to cast off and nudged another (power) boat, we got yelled at and snide comments were hurled our way. It was very disheartening to say the least, but we set out into the harbor anyway, determined to give our dream a go. We could see whitecaps around the tip of the Battery as we motored under the James Island connector, beating up directly into the nose of the wind. The 5hp Mercury long shaft did very well, although Emily thinks that it looks funny because instead of words, the throttle has little pictures of a rabbit and a turtle on it. Just my luck - my boat motor was labelled by Fisher Price.
The waves were steep and choppy, and although the boat was banging into them causing some water to squirt up through the centerboard slot, Anna Kate (20 months old) seemed lulled by the motion and fell fast asleep in the V birth! I don't know what the wind speed was at the time, but it was really blowing. The whitecaps were increasing. Power boats zipped all around us as the cold banging got to be too much and we turned around and headed back in, never unfurling a sail. Apparently the rest of the fleet got the same idea that we did at about the same time, because we were followed in by an entire flotilla. I rolled my eyes, picturing the huge crowd that surely would be gathered to witness our imminent docking catastrophe. Docking went more smoothly than expected, however, and the van had no trouble getting the boat up and out of the water. We took the rig down in the parking lot, leaving the main on the boom and the jib on the roller furler for ease of setup next time. When all this was finished, my daughter finally woke up from her nap on the V birth, ready to go!
What did we learn? Well, for one thing we learned that we need to find a less crowded boat ramp. I learned that my wife is a wonderful and very patient woman. I learned that my daughter is a natural born sailor, who actually felt confident enough amidst the chaos to sleep! I also learned that we know more than we thought we knew, especially when it came to rigging the boat, putting on the new sail slugs, and getting everything ready. I think that sailing is largely a confidence thing, and I hope to build some up as time goes on. Next time we will make sure to wait for better weather.
As a funny postscript, when we were taking down the rigging in the parking lot, one of our worst detractors at the launch ramp earlier was at the other end wrestling with his truck. It seems that his car alarm kept going off over and over, despite his best efforts to the contrary. I thought of a few choice comments, but instead held my tongue and took the high road (in other words, my wife wouldn't let me roll down the windows so he could hear me laughing as we trailered past!)
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