I started to learn how to sail when I was a Sea Explorer Scout before I went into the Navy. It was just a catboat with a simple sail and didn't go very fast, and it didn't go out into "big" waters.
After I joined the Navy, the Hector was in Sasebo in India Basin where she always sat (when I was aboard it) and I was out walking around checking out the area and seeing all there was to see.
Just behind (aft) of Hector was a small shack with a sign that said "Sasebo Yacht Club" and there was a small dock with some small sailboats tied up there. I went inside and asked about it. Sure enough, they had sailing lessons and you could check out a boat and cruise out on Sasebo Bay if you liked.
I signed up and started taking lessons. The boat was a small "one design" called a "Sea Horse" and was a sloop rig with enough sail to let you know it could be a lot of fun. Lessons lasted for several days and I finally got my certification to take one out solo and have some fun. It was a BLAST!
Several weeks later, there was a large, thirty foot sloop moored at the yacht club dock. It was a menacing looking, black, wooden hulled thing and had a small diesel engine as auxiliary power. I thought it was some civilian's boat. Name on the stern said, "Black Mariah". It was an eerie, scary name.
Then one day, this MR (US Navy designation for a Machinery Repairman) comes down into the foundry and asks if I'm the guy that got his sailing certification. I said I was, and he then proceeds to tell me him and two other guys are going to take this thirty-footer out and make a day of it. Then he says, these other two guys don't know how to sail and he needed someone else with a certification to help him man the thing.
Sounded good to me. So Saturday came and we went down to the "Black Mariah" and I checked it out. It showed signs of use and had some hard times in its past. There were no sail winches...they had been ripped off in a storm. The cabin had a slight smell of vomit and could still use a bit of cleanup work.
But the thing was still on top of the water, so it couldn't be all that bad. We shoved off. Wind was good and we set the main and what is known as a "Genoa" jib sail. A Genoa is one step down from a spinnaker. It is a massive thing and can grab a lot of air.
We were sailing along real well. The wind was picking up and it started to get rough. The MR (sorry, I can't remember his name) thought we should reduce sail a bit. Waves were getting pretty big and we were plunging in them a bit.
We fired up the little diesel engine and told the two non-sailors to keep her into the wind while we changed out the Genoa to a standard jib.
The MR got up on the bow pulpit (the handrail on the bow ) and locked his legs around it while he unclipped the sail from the jib stay. I stayed back at the mast and worked the halyards. The bow plunged down and we took water over our heads. We were laughing our asses off! We got the Genoa down and stuffed it down the hatch, then brought up the standard jib and got it rigged and set, then we got back to the cockpit out of the wind and spray.
We sailed on for a while, and it kept getting rougher and rougher. Again the MR says we should reduce sail. It was really starting to howl, but we were still able to handle it. But, back he went to the bow pulpit and me to the mast to work the halyards, and we changed out the standard jib for a storm jib. (I was surprised we had all these different sails on board!) And once again, the two non-sailors steered us into the wind while we plunged and rose many feet up and down, getting soaked and laughing like crazy people the whole time.
On we sailed. The weather was definitely getting worse. It was starting to get SCARY! Water was coming over the bow and we were starting to have a hard time steering and were getting the strange feeling we were in trouble.
We decided to return to the comfort of the little dock and some warm, dry clothes.
We came about and headed for home. It didn't take as long because now we were running with the wind instead of tacking back and forth, and as we approached the dock, this guy comes running down to meet us. He is yelling something but I can't quite make it out...
Then I hear, "DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A TYPHOON COMING IN?"
I laughed and replied, "NO SHIT???!!!"
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