Great story Connie, you should write a book of your sailing adventures. Tyler
On Dec 26, 2015, at 9:22 AM, Conbert Benneck <chbenneck@gmail.com> wrote:
Dave,
One good sailing story deserves another.
Here's my contribution.
Please carefully note the techniques that I used in this encounter, and with a bit of luck, you too, may have such an experience.
Connie
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT,
Or, how to meet a lovely nude woman in a Thunderstorm
Now that I have your undivided attention with the title to this chapter, let me tell you how this amazing and visually delightful feat was accomplished.
As I have mentioned before the Goose Island Cruising Club has a very heavy dependable Club mooring in West Harbor on Fishers Island, which was located near an entrance reef.
The mooring could hold five boats rafted together in any kind of weather.
We had sailed there on a Friday evening, and were the only boat on the Club mooring that weekend.
My story next required some visitors in a sailboat who are not very skilled and proficient at anchoring; and who, in this particular case, were neophyte sailors on their first cruise in their brand new sailboat.
These people weren’t aware of the dangers lurking in Connecticut waters during summer nights, nor had they put out sufficient scope on their single anchor to take care of sudden weather changes, 180 degree wind shifts, and tidal changes.
As the sun sets over Fishers Island, the normal daytime wind dies down, and the evening calm sets in.
All is quiet and peaceful.
Sailors on other boats sit in their cockpits sheltered by their dodgers enjoying the evening harbor tranquility.
As the moon rises higher, one by one the other sailors disappear down below into their cozy cabins and settle in for the night.
Katharina, my Admirable, and I finally turned in as well.
After years of head scratching and navel contemplating, I had finally succeeded in modifying our regular berths to turn them into a very practical double bed in the main cabin of our Tripp-Lentsch 29.I did it by turning the berth mattresses 90 degrees, and added support in the middle – the cockpit table – sitting on two rails.
This became sheer bliss for harbor sleeping, on a warm night, so we crawled into our bliss-bed without clothing, cuddled up next to each other, and went to sleep.
Hours later, I awoke when I heard the rumble of thunder.
I felt our boat rolling as the wind increased, and */FUN TOO/* was starting to jerk on our mooring pennant.
Lightning flashes lit up the outside world like high powered strobe lights.
When the lightening flashed you could see everything in the harbor as if it were daylight.
Our shrouds now started singing their wind song, which meant that the wind speed was in the 35 MPH range.
Our halyards, which I hadn’t bothered to cleat off earlier since it had been a flat calm, were rapping on the aluminum mast, urging me to stick my head out of the companionway to see what was going on, and to insure that all was well.
The halyard noise also meant I had to go on deck to cleat off the halyards so that we could sleep peacefully, and not have our sleep interrupted by halyards slapping the aluminum mast all night long.
That’s a Captain’s responsibility.
I lifted Katharina’s arm off my bare shoulders; and got out of bed.
She awoke and wanted to know if everything was OK.I told her I was going out to check the situation, and also to tie off the halyards.
I climbed the companionway steps, naked as I was, for a look-see.
On the port side of the companionway I had installed a small shelf to hold my eye glasses or my sun glasses.
I put on my eyeglasses and went into the cockpit.
We had a full width dodger over the companionway on our boat, so I could sit in the companionway naked, but still out of the rain and wind, and get a good look at what was happening
Outside, all hell was breaking loose.
It was a typical severe New England summer night, 2 AM thunderstorm.
The wind was blowing around 30 to 35 MPH.
The frequent lightning flashes showed me rolling waves with white caps and streaks of foam all over West Harbor and far out on Fishers Island Sound too.
Then the light rain turned into heavy rain.
A quick check of our mooring, which was about 100 feet from a reef at the entrance to West Harbor, showed that all was well for our ship.
The mooring pennant wasn’t chafing, and aside from the halyards banging against the mast everything was OK.
I went on deck and tied off the halyards.
All was now semi-quiet on */FUN TOO/*.The halyards were no longer playing timpani accompaniment, but the wind in the shrouds still continued playing its monotonous melody
It was quite a scene, so I sat there for a few minutes absorbed in Nature’s sound and fury; her noise and light show.
Then I noticed the blue hulled sailboat that had anchored ahead of us earlier that evening, was obviously dragging its anchor.It was moving slowly towards us, heading directly for the reef.
This boat was now starting to slide past us, but luckily was close enough, so that by using my boat hook, I could hook their railing, hold on, and pull their boat over so that I could grab their railing stanchion.
I pounded on their deck. A short period of silence ensued, and then a beautiful woman, popped out of their companionway hatch wearing a teensy-weensy Baby-Doll nightgown.
It went almost half way to there, …but not quite!
I yelled at her to get me a spring line as I hung on to their boat.
She did, and we got that on her aft cleat and our forward cleat.
Their boat was now stopped from sliding any further.
She then got me a second spring line which was cleated to both boats.Next, a bow line; and finally a stern line.
In the downpour, her Baby-Doll nightgown was instantly soaking wet and became totally transparent.
It was the epitome of a college boy’s dreams of wet Tee shirt contests on the beaches in Florida during Spring Break.
Now that their boat was safely tied up to ours, she introduced herself as Nancy.
Nancy’s body was beautifully delineated by her wet Baby-Doll nightgown, but things were so hectic at that moment, I didn’t really have the time to admire the lovely view that was standing in front of me.
Nancy, as soon as she had seen what was happening, had hollered to her husband, who was still in bed, to come up and lend a hand, but his voice from their cabin answered, “/I haven’t got any clothes on.I’ll be up as soon as I can put on my pants and shoes.”/
When we heard that, we both looked at each other, me totally nude, and she about as nude as I was, but slightly covered with the wet Baby-Doll nightgown plastered to her body, which just added to her nakedness and allure, and we both laughed out loud.
We still had a bit more to do before we could settle down again for the remainder of the night.
I asked Nancy to get out a fender, and I got one too.
As I was leaning over, adjusting the position of the fenders, my eyeglasses slid off my head and went “Plop” into the water between our boats.
“Plop” is obviously a gross exaggeration.
With the noise of the wind singing in the rigging; wave noise, the grinding of the hulls on the fenders as both boats rolled in the waves, the noise that the eyeglasses made falling into the water was totally inaudible.
I really didn’t hear it at all.I just noticed later that they were gone.
With fenders in place between our boats; with the mooring lines properly adjusted, and their boat now rafted securely to ours, it was time for a proper introduction.
We stood, on our respective decks, both of us totally bare, about two feet apart exchanging names.
The very dangerous moments for their boat, a short while ago, had passed.
Now they were safe.
Nancy thanked me for having noticed their predicament and for saving them from winding up on the reef, because their anchor had dragged.
Lightning flashes now showed the reef covered by breaking waves, and as the excitement of the past moments ebbed, we were both standing in the pouring rain, laughing at how we looked to each other and how we had just met.
As we chatted, with the wind blowing hard, the rain pouring down, and the lightening illuminating everything, Nancy’s husband finally came out of their cabin and stood in the cockpit.
He was very properly attired in creased suntan pants, Sperry Topsider boat shoes with white wool socks, a knit polo shirt with the logo of their Greenwich Yacht Club embroidered on the pocket, … and /now /properly dressed,//he was ready to lend a hand, as needed.
He looked at the two of us standing there soaking wet and naked, and wanted to know what all the fuss, yelling, and noise had been about.
Nancy explained to her husband what had almost happened.
How the, dripping wet, naked gentleman standing on the red hulled boat, had saved them and their new boat from making an extremely dangerous acquaintanceshipwith the reef that he could now see, - */right there/*…, and she pointed.
As he looked in that direction, a lightning flash showing the foam covered reef very clearly.His answer was, “Ooh!”
Besides being soaking wet, Nancy and I were now getting quite chilled by the strong wind.
It was time to call it a night; go below; dry off; climb back into a nice warm berth, and cuddle up with someone who was still nice and warm;… and warm up again.
For some strange reason, my Admirable wasn’t very enthused about having my chilled body next to her nice warm one.
She pushed me away and made me stay over on my side of the berth until I had warmed up, and had become her warm cuddly Captain again.
In the morning; Nancy – wearing clothes; with her husband, - in clothes; and we - in clothes; ate breakfast together in our cockpit.
Nancy was sorry to hear that I had lost my glasses during their rescue, and asked me to get a new pair and send her the bill.
We exchanged names and addresses.
Later, Nancy and her husband departed West Harbor heading for their final cruise destination, New Harbor on Block Island, before returning to their home port at Greenwich, CT.
After they had departed, the sun was shining again.
I put on my swim fins and diving mask and started searching the harbor bottom for my eyeglasses.
They had to be somewhere on the radius that our boats were swinging on during the night.
After several dives I found them and brought them back on board, much to the amazement of the Admirable.
So that is how you get to meet a very pretty, seductively clad, almost totally naked girl using astrong mooring, and a red hulled Tripp-Lentsch sailboat as bait.
…and I got her name, address and telephone number with her husband’s blessing too!
I can’t say that sail boats with different colored hulls will work as well as our red-hulled Tripp-Lentsch did.
You’ll just have to give it a try.
I have now described my method, and all the basic details.I hope that someday you too can find another Nancy, just as lovely as our Nancy, and be her rescuer too.
Keep in mind however, that pouring rain and adequately intense lightning are absolutely necessary for optimum visual results, enjoyment, and vessel safety.
Also please note that this was a totally PC (Politically Correct) and Equal Opportunity encounter.
Nancy enjoyed her views as much as I did mine.
Good Luck!