- Date: April 2, 1987
- Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Subject: Dinghy Drills and Saving Gangemi
Dear Water Fairy:
Today was a super fun day, and it did not turn out at all like I expected. As Capt says, “You never know what is going to happen when you are dealing with Mother Sea!” True enough, because I thought I was going to spend my day doing math and English school work with Mom, at the galley table. It is a school day after all. But after breakfast, Capt told me that we were going to take the dinghy to the mangrove swamp, so I could practice some maneuvers. Doing this dinghy work was going to cover geometry, plus science and nature, because we were going to be working with the wind and the tide. I was SO happy this was going to be my school work for the day. I think Mom was happy too, happy to get Capt and me off the boat so she could have some alone time.
So off we went, in Big Red. I was at the helm and in-charge of the outboard, which I loved and it felt good that I could do it. I even started the outboard on my own, steered away from Sacha-B and off to the mangroves. Capt was up front, not saying much, just letting me do what I thought was the right thing. When I did something not at all right, he spoke up, but I knew enough to do the right thing, and keep him quiet! Capt is a big believer of practicing for things that can go wrong, so if they do go wrong, you won’t panic and make a silly mistake. Just like the firefighters, they are practicing all the time to put out fires, so when there is a fire, it is just all business, no panic.
After a few hours of practicing a stalled engine, gaging the tide to get to certain endpoints, calculating how to get around the sand bars and mud drifts, and figuring out the tide and wind with the power of the outboard, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. When we were wrapping up my “dinghy drills”, Capt said to me, “Good job, Miss Skipper. Time to go full throttle home, Mom is probably missing the heck out of us!” Full throttle means full power ahead. That was a blast to just go through the water as fast as we could. I like it when the dinghy bumps up and down over the waves. I even hit a big wave head on, which sprayed Capt pretty good. Honestly though, I didn’t really think Mom was missing the heck out of us.
As we were heading back home, Capt noticed a fishing punt near the edge of the mangroves pretty far out of the harbor. A punt is a dinghy that does not have a pointy bow, but square front and a flat bottom. Most people who fish in the mangroves like punts because they can get into shallow areas, and even stand up in the punt without rocking the boat. Anyway, there was a guy in the punt waving. Capt told me to head toward the punt. He thought it was his old pal Peter-the Earth Mover off yacht Gangemi. Sure enough, as we got close, Capt started his kookaburra call. Low and behold, the guy in the punt returned it. (not as good as the Capt’s but a solid effort.) I asked Capt if he wanted to take over the helm as we approached the punt, he said “No, you got it girl, just head for the stern of the punt.” I think Capt, in his own way was showing off, me being a girl and handling the dinghy like an old salty sailor. So, I aimed for the stern, and slowed down as I got closer. Capt and Grampa Pete, were yelling at each other, seems like there was an issue with Grampa Pete’s outboard. As I pulled up alongside the punt, I noticed that Grampa Pete’s grandson, Bryan was also on board. I wasn’t surprised, every time I have seen Grampa Pete on the water, Bryan was always with him.
Bryan is a few years older than me, maybe he is 15. His nickname is BG, and you would think that is his nickname because those are his initials, BG= Bryan Gangemi, which is true, but his nickname mostly comes from the fact that Bryan LOVES the group the BEE GEES. He can even play a few of their songs on the guitar and sing them too. One-night last year, we had a bonfire at the yacht club beach and he played the guitar and sang for hours. His favorite song is “Massachusetts”. When I asked him why, he told me he liked the song because he has family living back in Massachusetts, which is a state in USA, and he plans to go there one day and visit his relatives. I thought that was extra cool, because Mom’s family is also from Massachusetts, but they do not know the Gangemi’s. As Mom would say, “Small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it!”
Anyway, Capt and Grampa Pete figured out that one of the spark plugs in the outboard was gunked up, so the outboard wouldn’t work. We decided the best thing to do was to give the punt, called The Mover a tow back to their yacht, which was at the other end of the harbor. It was funny to see all the guys excited and acting silly about the “adventure” of being saved and towing the punt back to their boat. I grabbed the extra long painter from The Mover and tied it on the portside aft cleat. Capt decided he was going to catch up on all the Grampa Pete’s news, so he jumped into The Mover and BG jumped into Big Red. Off we went, heading down the harbor towards the creek. Luckily the tide and the wind was behind us, so the trip was easy peasy. I realized when I was steering Big Red, that I was actually the skipper, and in charge of the whole scene. Of course, I knew Capt was there to jump in if anything when wrong, but I was definitely the skipper!
I was really happy when BG told me that he and Grampa Pete were on Gangemi for 6 months and were planning to do some cruising in Papua New Guinea around the same time we were. It will be fun to have someone my age to hang out with occasionally. Like the crew of Sacha-B, BG and Grandpa Pete have a ton of stuff to do before they could leave on their trip, and it looks like they have one more thing to do. Fix the outboard.
It took us about 30 minutes to make the tow to Gangemi, which is a beautiful 43 foot one mast rig. Her hull is a gorgeous royal blue, and there is plenty of teak woodwork on deck. Grampa Pete invited us onboard for a cup of tea, of course. I was a little surprised Capt lasted all these hours without complaining that he didn’t have any tea. BG took to cleaning a few of the skipjack they caught in the mangrove before their outboard kacked it, and packed them in ice (yes-Gangemi has an ice machine!) as a thank you for the tow. He also gave us a good size mud crab, which made Capt very happy. I know what we are having for dinner tonight!
Once we got back to Sacha-B, Capt was bouncing all around like a little kid on Christmas morning, all excited that Gangemi was going cruising, and we would probably be able to do some sailing legs together with them. Mom was also happy to hear that another boat was planning to be in PNG around the same time as us. It is always good to have some company.
Mom was busy while we were gone, reorganizing and stowing stores and equipment. She also baked a bunch of chocolate chip cookies, most of which she put into the freezer, but she did save us a few. As soon as Capt finished his tea, he boiled up the mudcrab so I could make some mud crab salad for happy hour. I also got the potatoes ready for the chips that I will cook while Capt grilled the skipjack on his new grill . Mom was happy to have another night off from cooking and had an extra beer during happy hour while her “galley maids” got the food together. Noone was unhappy we were having fish-n-chips for dinner again. Mom said she was watching me do my dinghy drills through her binoculars and was impressed with my progress.
I thought I would be able to do some reading after writing this entry, but I am too tired. Being in the sun all day and being busy is a good recipe for sleep. SO nite nite.
