Pacific Action Sailing with the Boy.

By Jim Farrely.
I took my son fishing off Tybee Island a few nights ago. We went out at 6.30 pm in our double baidarka launching into an extremely strong Southeastern headwind. An outgoing tide allowed us to crawl forwards in lumpy conditions towards Little Tybee in spite of the wind. Twenty five minutes later we landed and started to fish from the beach. Our luck was good and we caught and released a few fish and called it a night at around 945 pm. Again we launched into the same strong wind and the outgoing tide. At least the wind would carry us home which was the plan all along. The tide was ebbing hard and the wind caused the water to really pile up.
I gave the command to set the sail and the boy let it fly. We took off startlingly fast and rapidly exceeded what I imagined was the theoretical hull speed. It got very interesting when the baidarka did what it does well which is surf a following sea. So here we were father and son doing the bonding thing by surfing a double while under sail at night. I was totally in the zone and knew we were riding on the edge of a total wipeout. The boy was vibrating with excitement and so was I. Complete darkness made it a true Doug Lloyd moment. The only way I could see any detail was when whitecaps broke near the boat and gently silhouetted portions of the baidarka.
We were screaming across a shallow area that can be especially rough when out of the darkness I saw the flat bow of a pram being rowed towards us! I shouted a Winnie the Pooh, "Hal-ohhh!" The man in the pram swiveled around and we sized each other up as the bigger fool. He quickly faded out of sight. I asked the boy for a report on our location. He replied with either near the fishing pier or not now dear. I cant be sure which due to the wind. Utilizing the navigation update I corrected our course slightly to the right and screamed in towards what I hoped would be the boat ramp. Yes, there it was! I yelled, "Strike the sail in 5, 4, 3, strike the sail now!" The boy had it down just as we impacted the ramp. We really didn't land so much as center punched the base of the ramp. The sea and wind quickly slammed the baidarka sideways against the rotten concrete. We rolled/spilled out and stood up looking at each other with big grins. Dragging the double up the ramp a man walking his dog asked us if it might be a tad rough to be out. We nodded in agreement and he just smiled. He seemed to understand that sometimes you need to push out even when perhaps others think you shouldn't.
Jim et al