This Bird Braved the Storm in Its Nest

The sloop, Herald Bird, was full of supplies, and ready for a cruise to Catalina Island last weekend when my wife and I began to have misgivings about the weather. It was not that a bit of wind would have bothered us. It’s the chill factor on a wet day, and all indications were that it would be wet and lumpy through the San Pedro Channel. We decided against the trip.

After 14 years with the Bird in nearly every type of weather, we still sail with an open cockpit. Whenever I get cold in foul weather, I think of the remark another Cheoy Lee Offshore 27 owner said to us in Emerald Cove one fine summer day. We’d rowed over to admire his spray dodger and inquire where he had it made. We’d even gone so far as to write down the firm’s address in the Bird’s logbook.

“Only a barbarian would sail in an open cockpit,” the fellow said.

That was a couple of years ago. The address still is in the log. We don’t have a spray dodger yet. And we’re still thinking of having one fitted because winter cruising can be pleasurable.

Before the gray whales head north off our coast next March, I resolve to become a civilized sailor by having a spray dodger made for the Bird.

Last weekend, instead of going to Catalina, we did something we haven’t done in years. We sailed up, down, and across Newport Harbor, from the Coast Guard station on the east to the end of The Rhine on the west. In miles covered, that would have put us about a third of the way to Catalina. Then we tied up at our slip and watched the storm front build in the northwest. We ate dinner aboard and spent the night there as the wind played harp songs with our rigging. It was lovely.

Sailing Notes

Jim Torre of Newport Beach, president of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Pacific Region, has informed the California Coastal Commission of his organization’s support of the Orange County development plan for the Bolsa Chica coastal area near Huntington Beach. Torre said: “We now believe (the plan) as presently written will satisfactorily restore the wetlands area and enhance marine life that utilizes the area as habitat.” The plan includes about 1,300 boat slips in a public marina, 5,700 residential units, a navigable ocean entrance to Bolsa Chica and 915 acres of natural wetlands.

John Wold has been elected as commodore of the Capistrano Bay Yacht Club for 1986. Also flying the commodore’s burgee next year will be Tony Fallon for the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.