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    Sailing Adventures Part 3--Conclusion

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    Sailing Adventures Part 3 - Conclusion

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    kilpp.av

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Wander Bird While I was working at my desk one day, the phone rang. 8 toually, unknown (0 ime, voice asked if this was “Onkol Con- hie* talking” Onkel Connie? That sounded typically German but the voice on the phone ddila"t have a German accent. Who ‘could this possibly be? The man on the other end ‘of the phone cal soon identified himself, He ‘was Warwick Thompson J, the son of Wat ‘wick Thompson who had bought a Hamburs Pilot schonmer in Germany in the early 19305 and, together with his wife, had sailed it rom Hanibarg, Germany, to Boston. This pilot schooner vas later renamed Wander Bird “Warwick nd called me He Calor nia because he had met out nephew Ramses Erdmann in the Sat Francisco ates, He had asked Ramses if he knew anyone who might beable to elp him sail Wander Bi from the US back to Germany, Ramses had told him, “call my Onkel Connie in Connecticut. He has a German Captain's and Celestial N igator’s License, speaks fluent German and French and as sailing experience in the En lish Channel and in Europe. He can help you ‘Thompson Jr, from the book we had read t0 four children years earlier ttle, Tro Chile ‘dren Sal Aroand Cape Horn, which tals the Story of how his father and mother pls their two young children, Warwick and his sis- ter, sailed Wander Bird from Boston down the East Coast of the US, the east coast of ‘South America, rounded Cape Hom and then sailed back north until they arrived at their new home port. San Prancisco. Years later mnder Bird had been sold by tse Thom sons and it had passed through the hands of several subsequent owners and By 90% Was slowly deteriorating, Warwick Thompson Jr wanted 10 save Wander Bird from further deterioration. Ho wanted tee his od shipoating home back in Hamburg, Germany. a8 a living epresenta- tive of days gone by when these pilot schoo nots brought Elbe River pilots 9 incoming hips atthe mouth of the Elbe River whose tltimate destination was the Port af Harm- burg, far upstream. He had already contacted ‘various German organizations t soe if they ‘might wane to take on stich project. "Warwick asked me i | might be able to give him some further contacts in alton {0 those he named. 1 was able to give him the dames and addresses of several major Noh Germans Yacht Clabs that had very wealthy ‘members as well asthe nares and addresses of other German organizations be might contact ‘Warwick's idea was to sail Wander Bind from Seatle, Washington. back to Hamburg, Germany, and asked i i might be Wiling to join the crew as joint navigatoranguage exponexperienced sailor, My answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes, when?” He and I stayed {in touch Tor several months on this projec. Finally he called to tell me that though he had been successful and had found a Ger- ‘man erpanization who wanted fo take on the Wander Bird project, they were going to have Wander Bind shipped back to Hamburg. as deck cargo on a freighter So there went my 3 opportunity to finally cross the Atlantic under sal ‘Wander Bird, now back in Hamburg, has been given a total rebuild and is seaivorthy fetin. She has her old Hambure Pilot ship number, Etbe 5, and is being used 0 take 20~Messing About in Boats, Sune 2019 GST sreey Tie Res pO 4 LEAd6 TIME Sailing Adventures Part 3 - Conclusion By Contest Benncck poople on cruises on the Elbe River. Details Drow it was shipped and what Etbe S looks like today after the complete restoration can be found on YouTube. A Visit from Poseidon A Hot Summer Day Fantasy (On hot, 90° early summer day in 2005 I had towed Leppo 10 Lake Pocotopaug in Connecticut and was preparing to launch it We hhad dock space atthe small marina on the lake and therefore cou go sailing an time, First | had to vig the boot and then use the Eant Hampton town launch ramp 1 pat {eppo in the ater. "The lune ray Was only about 100" away from my deck space The now very familiar lunch dll tegan, You know how it goes, ake the 0 Tard motor out ofthe back ofthe VW sta tion wagon and hang it on the it motor ‘mount and tighten the clampe. Clin up the Short lar into the cockpit and sor ut the ‘igging onthe mast that was still horizontal ‘Are the shroude all lear? Ave the main and The ib halyas on the proper side of the ‘mas? Ts everything rad and lar for as ing the ms" pul the mast ol though de mast step and he fot of the mas, pushed the mast op fd Heid tein place wid te ib halyard tn {Team cleat onthe cabin top a0 that {could ‘etch the Foresay to the bow iting ten Sion iT pulled the boom wi the fled Imalsal ott ofthe cabin and attached 11 the max gged he boom topping it and $Mtached the minsheet The mainsail sis tree fe onc by one, into sot inthe mas With al of them im place 1 closed the side le then attached the boom dow nha T got more gea ou othe sation wagon and climbed the ladder several more tines, Joaaing the boat with equipment As con ‘sa working, espiaion fom al that fort Stoned sling off ty forchead and dpe From my nose. My shi by this ime, was Soaking wet too. Sopp, std in Leppe's Cockpit fora momen wiping the persptation ftom my’ foreiend taking small Presee ftom al my heavy Ming and from il the timbing up and down the ladder. looked out athe anquiity ofa vind- less summer's weekday on Lake Pocotopau ‘hore wut « Boat o be seen anyohere, no outboards, no PWCS, noting was Moy" ing om the water surface! There wasnt even the faintest ripple caused by someone pad Gling # canoe or kayak, but far aut in the ‘mide of the lake though there appeared fo bbe commotion below ihe waters surface Ie started small but thon Became a huge dis turbance, 2 massive upwelling of water from dwn best. Ati center something. totally Unbelievable appeared athe Ware's surface Ie looked as if might be a charot pulled by horses, only the chariot thmed out 0 be very large cornucopia shaped seashell. The hhrscs they approached the shore, ined (ut fo bea team of two huge seahorses who were being guided in my diction by two Besuful mermaids. In this “charet was the strangest sight of ally all, very muscular man dipping Wet, totally nude, who Was siting on a Sal throne in the lage pen end of the corn- ‘copia shel, He had a shor pointed beard in Snelent Greck syle, had seaweed for hai, nd the seaweed hai as topped by a kins’s ov ni lt hand eld ent They {ame up the ramp an finally topped alo Sie Leppo.[elimbed down from Leppo fo src my unknown Visio. ‘The man with the seaweed har, wear ing a king's crown, stepped out of his char fot, walked towards me while popping the top fa cold can of Australian Foster beet and Fhanded it to me.I thanked him and gratefully took & long drink from the cold beer on this very hot summer day. He inrodvced him- felt “'m Poseidon, Ruler of the Oveans,” he said” and I've come to have a serious chat ‘with you. Let's sit down on the grass in the shade ofthis big oak tree where we can talk.” ‘Afier we were seated, with the pretty mermaids, tails neatly cured up and siting close by. Poseidon opened another can of Foster Beer for himself and then got directly to the point of his visit “Connie, jst how old are you now? “Eighty-four” Treplie. He sat for a while in, contemplative silence, looking out at Lake Pocotepaug and fdiiring the lines ofthe Montgomery 15 just bbhind us as he slowly sipped his beer, Then he turned towards me again and asked, "Does your Admirable sill enjoy going sailing on Burs ater het double hip joint ‘placement operation a few years ago?" T hia to admit that she wast as nimble con the boat as she once had boen, but then 10 be perfectly honest, neither was T anymore “There was another lons pause as we sa there, sipping our beer inthe shade Tinally Poseidon asked, "Connie, just how. Jong do you think you ean keep going sling?” Thad to admit that eack new launch was becoming mow strenuous, a more difficult physical chore, I-wasn't as fast on my foot | used tobe, my weflexes weren't as fast as they used to be and lifting and carrying all the boat gear was becoming more and more work ‘with each new excursion. Our Montgomery 15" sailboat was also abit skittish at times when walking Trom the cockpit othe bos to Tower a jib when a motorboat's wake wave hits us. My minal Keeps tells me Tam 30, OK, well, maybe 40, or: maximum 45, but_ my body, inwanily, just giggles at hearing this Poseidon had made his point very well. PPoscidom felt that the time had come for me to swallow the anchor. He fnished his cold can of Foster beer. “Connie, remember that {ime when you were saling in the Adriatic in Fun Too and I stole one of the bottles of Yugoslavian beer Irom Your net, way down deep in the Adriatic, and you didn't know where it had gona?” “That was a great joke, wasn’t it?” 1 never forget the expression on Your {ace when you polled up your net untied it and then found that one bottle of heer was missing also want to thank you forall the Doomksats nnd Schinapes you have elven me etore yoo started each voyage over all the years you have boon aslo. I've always kept an eye out for you, even if you thought was the Kiabau- terman or Neplne. We ve really all one aid the same person, diferent countries, with dif ferent languages, gave me diferent names. ‘Whe I poi back to Olympus that eve ning and told the others the story of how T Sole the beer bottle and the tick I had just played on you, even Zeus and Aphrodite had to laugh and ssid, “Poseidon, you really shoved those mere mortals what we Gods fan do if we fel like it" Poseidon rose from the grass where he had been siting, shook my hand, wished me happy. sailing and climbed into his seashell chariot. The mer maids tumed the seahorses around and led them down the ramp and back out towards the middle ofthe lake. Poseidon turned and waved 0 me and then, Tike a submerging submarine. they slowly disappeared under the water's sur Tce and were gone. Moments later the whole surface of Lake Pocotopaug was a Fat glassy calm again as if nothing at all had ever happened. Tt wae hard to believe what had just experienced but the physical evidence of the ‘meeting foreed me to accept that reality. 1 didn't have any Foster beer in my cooler on board Zeppo but now I still hada bal finished ean of Foster beer in my hand and thee, lying lander the big oak tree were Poseidon ad 1 hha sat and tlled, was a second empty Fos ter can, It had beon a sureal encounter. The Greek Goel Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, Jan just visited me and had given me a per sonal message to reflect on For the rest of the summer, whenever I sailed on Lake Pococopaug snd sailed across the spot where Poseidon had appeared, T thought about his message. Slowly T Was forced to reach the same conclusion, Pose don had been right. The Admirable really dida’t enjoy going out ssling with me any more because she no longer felt sure footed tnd nimble on Leppo. Even stepping from the slightly twisting fn- ser pier into Leppo's cockpit had become & sowing problem for her. "We both were now forced to accept the fact that we really were getting older Nautical Know how and manual Skills ofa kinds had kept increasing over the years while physical strength, dexierty an balance were slowly decreasing. Sadly Poseidon’s judgment, and his recommendation te me, was correct. It Was time for sto swallow the anchor and ive up our wonderfal sport of sailing. At the nd of the summer we Sold Leppo to. young, ouple from Montpelier, Verinont. who took her back to Lake Champlain Sailing bas been a great lifelong adven- ture for Katharina, for our children, Hilde- fara and Gerhard, and for me. The author ‘who expressed this feling the best was Ken eth Grahame, who wrote The Wind in the Willows, and in Chapter 1 of hs book. he said, "There is nothing, absolutely nothing ball so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of “om, it doesn't ‘matter Nothing Seems really to matter, hats the charm of it, Whether you get away. oF ‘whether you don’t, whether you arrive at your

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