Its that time of the year again: Newport Boat Show

We did the annual pilgrimage to Newport to mostly check out new X-35, not the Joint Strike Fighter, but equally impressive X-Yachts production boat. It was just named the boat of the year by the "Sailing" magazine so we felt it was worth a special look. We weren't disappointed, it is a gorgeous yacht that deserves the award.

This is how the the thing looked in person



Other than that we spent some time talking to old friends from couple of dealerships, saw new Catalina 27 and Hunder 25, both were quite likable boats but nothing too earth shaking there.

Short account of the incedent off Catt (Childrens) Island

We ran into a bit of a trouble during the overnight trip on Saturday, September the 1st. This is a short account of events during that difficult night.


What went wrong ?

1. We ran out of gas at about 5 miles offshore:
   
   It got dark really fast and we didn't want to sail back for a variety of reasons (a)almost no wind, b)everyones tired, c)kid is cranky. Motoring didn't go too well because all of the sudden the thing chocked and then died. Sure enough there was no gas. How this could happen is beyond me, most likely I underestimated the gas consumption of the engine. I also didn't have spare fuel because I didn't think I would need it on a short sail.
   
   So I had to head to the closest land which was a small island and set the anchor and get in touch with Salem Harbormaster (Steve Levesque), who was kind enough to loan me a canister of gas. It took him a while to find us because it was quite late and we were sort of tucked in the cove, not really visible. Also, the island was tagged as a "Catt Island" on my chart, whereas the local name is "Childrens Island", which introduced some more confusion into already messy situation.
   

2. We lost our anchor:
   
   Anchor line got tangled up around the board and wouldn't let go. I had to dive to try to get it going. It was cold and I wasn't very happy. I end up cutting it lose. Why did it get tangled in the first place ? Because harbormasters boat was running at a low speed and it sort of circled around the anchor few times. We didn't realize it at a time, when I tried to get the anchor going then it became apparent at what happened

3. We hit a shoal on a way back:
   
   To finish the night in style I managed to ram the shoal on a way back.
   Why ? Because it is dark at night and the navigational markers are not lit and one does not expect a shoal in the middle of the channel. Sure I should have double and triple checked the map, which will go down as a lesson.
   
   There was some damage to the boat, thankfully we didn't take any water and I managed to get it out from the rocks without calling the Harbormaster again or having to go into the water. The Shoal was across the Peach's Point in Marblehead.

What were the lessons ?

• Unlike Blanche DuBois in the "Streetcar Named Desire" who depended on kindness of strangers, I really dislike to depend on anybody. Particularly strangers. So the first lessons was to get the Sea Tow contract with a reputable company.

• Try to have redundant systems in place, spare fuel, plugs, etc.

• Try not to sail during the night

• Get a GPS or memorize the charts

• Leave the junior at home if the conditions are going to be less than 100% perfect