If the story teller was "Texas John" then it was the '77 delivery back from Hawaii following our 1st Transpac as a crew on the C&C 39 "Midnight Special".
That delivery was one of my favorite of my 4 east bound Hawaii deliveries. Great weather and crew, reading in the cockpit by moon light, 2 weeks on one tack, getting ready for night watch by putting on a T-shirt, and teaching the crew the words to Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise". We hit the dock at Shilshole around dawn on a weekday. By 9AM we were loaded into my 1969 Ford Econoline van headed to one of the crew's lakeside houses for a party. It was a great year to be young, single, and hooked on offshore sailing. The one thing that would have improved it would be to know what I now know about offshore fishing under sail. Back in 77 no one on the crew knew how to catch tuna and mahi mahi. With what I learned on later Hawaii deliveries we could have been eating like kings most of the trip back to Seattle. Martin DeYoung Calypso 1971 C&C 43 Seattle -----Original Message----- From: CnC-List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andrew Burton via CnC-List Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 3:51 AM To: [email protected] Cc: Andrew Burton Subject: Re: Stus-List Pacific Sea stories Martin, as you may have guessed, my pal describing the event was John Dennison. Somehow your name came up and he told the story. I thought it too good not to share! Andy C&C 40 Peregrine Andrew Burton 61 W Narragansett Newport, RI USA 02840 http://sites.google.com/site/andrewburtonyachtservices/ +401 965-5260 > On Jun 18, 2015, at 00:44, Martin DeYoung via CnC-List > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Andrew, > > Which C&C 39 and year? In the late 70's there was 4 or 5 active 39s racing > in the PNW. Many of the crews would hang out together after racing and tell > sea stories. The names "Blackwatch" and "Mistress" come to mind. The > "Midnight Special" set a Vic Maui record for boats under 40' in either 74 or > 76 under its original ownership, Steve Crary IIRC. > > I did a similar thing sailing a C&C 39 (the "Midnight Special" under its 2nd > owner) sailing back to Seattle from a Transpac 77. I dove over for a > baseball sized glass float. I took the crew a few moments to drop the > spinnaker and turn around. I could not see the boat for about 10 minutes but > I was young and a good swimmer. We were +- 1,000 miles from dry land. > > I have 9 glass floats picked up while delivering boats back from Hawaii. > That baseball sized one is the smallest, the largest is the size of a small > beach ball. My wife has them nicely displayed in our home. > > The bigger floats always had a "beard" of sea life hanging below the water's > surface. The big float still had its netting attached which allowed extra > sea life to attach. When I extended out from the deck to grab the float it > almost pulled me off the boat. Another crew grabbed my legs allowing me to > hold onto the float until the boat slowed more. I cut off the netting and > returned it to the sea. > > Martin > Calypso > 1971 C&C 43 > Seattle > > ________________________________________ > From: CnC-List [[email protected]] on behalf of Andrew Burton via > CnC-List [[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 7:41 PM > To: [email protected] > Cc: Andrew Burton > Subject: Stus-List Pacific Sea stories > > So I just had dinner with an old mate of mine and he had a great story about > sailing a C&C 39 back to Seattle from Maui a few decades ago. Japanese > fishermen used to have these beautiful blown glass fishing floats that would > occasionally get away and were highly valued by sailors. > > They were reaching along with the kite up when my friend, who was driving, > and his watch mate saw one the size of a basketball. The watch mate tried to > grab it but missed. So he called "man overboard!" and jumped in after it. My > friend stopped the boat by going head to wind as the rest of the guys ran on > deck. They retrieved the glass ball and then their errant crewman. > > Apparently the owner was quite impressed! :) > > Andy > C&C 40 > Peregrine > > Andrew Burton > 61 W Narragansett > Newport, RI > USA 02840 > _______________________________________________ Email address: [email protected] To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com
