Pleasant Bay’s southern end


A Sailing Lesson from the


Five-Year-Old


narrowed into a short, tight waterway then opened wide again. At first glance the cove appeared similar to Pleasant Bay. Upon closer examination we observed differences. The cove had a skinny, deeper channel at the eastern edge running north and south, marked by helpful red and green buoys while most of the cove, over half as wide as Pleasant Bay, was so shallow as to prevent even our small dinghy from sailing there with the centerboard down.


This was the spot where my son


“Look, Dad!” my son hollered, “Water is flowing past that green buoy.” I explained to my five-year-old that he couldn’t see water flowing, that would indicate a significant current. We were in a small secluded bay without currents. He must be mistaken. I would soon get my comeuppance.


By Allen Murphy My son and I were sailing in


Pleasant Bay while my wife and our youngest, the baby, were staying in the hotel room to beat the baby’s cough. My wife shooed us out of the room that morning saying she, the professional nurse, could do better with the baby if we weren’t in her way. The day before we had spied a 15-foot sailing dinghy on the hotel beach, so we rented it for a few hours while my wife worked her nursing magic with the baby. I hadn’t been sailing for five years,


yet the guidelines provided by the instructor all sounded easily familiar. My five-year-old and I would enjoy a fun sailing day on the water. With no motor on the dinghy, it was satisfying to sheet in the mainsail and scoot away from the dock across the clear water of Pleasant Bay in the 10 knot breeze. Winging east on a beam reach, the water gradually shoaled until my son


48° NORTH, FEBRUARY 2012 PAGE 30


excitedly jabbed at the grass, shells, small rocks and sand that were clearly visible as we gawked over the side into the knee-deep water. It was only minutes later the centerboard bounced across the bottom as the dinghy dragged to a stop. Given the warm summer temperatures and the joy of splashing, it was a fun adventure to spring out of the dinghy into the transparent 18 inch brine and nudge the dinghy to deeper water.


Steering the dinghy back to


the west, my son gripped the tiller and enjoyed sailing the beam reach, bounding back and forth across the small bay. At this point I was feeling quite confident (overconfident?) and we still had over two hours to return our dinghy to the hotel dock. The intrigue of exploring the channel to the south invited a downwind run into the unknown (to us) cove.


pointed out the green buoy and rushing water. I made my lame comment about my five-year-old’s “mistake,” enjoying our fast run before the mild breeze as we clipped past one buoy after another. Finally, it dawned on me that returning to the dock required tacking to windward. We safely jibed, then advanced the turn to the northwest. Quickly entering the shallows to the west we tacked to the northeast only to find ourselves much too soon at the eastern edge of the narrow channel forcing another tack. Pointing upwind, the dinghy sliced


energetically through the small waves at a wonderful clip with occasional spray cooling us in the summer sun. It was grand sailing at its best . . . until it became clear that our dramatic sailing was merely keeping pace with the anchored buoys. Although we tacked and burst upwind through the clear cool tide, the dinghy only maintained position with the same red buoy. Clearly, I am a slow study as it took a couple tacks to realize that my five-year-old had correctly identified the tidal current rushing out of Pleasant Bay, through the small cove and beyond into the falling ocean tide. Now it became important to sail


the little dinghy both upwind and upcurrent, or we would miss our return by several hours! With the centerboard down the dinghy could sail only a few yards west of the slender channel before striking bottom. We could sail across the channel itself, but had to quickly tack away from the eastern edge of the channel, as the eastern channel edge was the eastern shoreline. In addition, the current was strongest in the channel center. Headway could only briefly be


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