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Cameron tells me of his interest in sailing and purchasing Lilinoe, his first boat... Purchasing Lilinoe "I was sitting on the airplane, heading to Hawaii and reading a sailing magazine. There was an article about sailing around the Hawaiian waters and liveaboard lifestyle. I had never sailed or owned a boat. No one in my immediate family had ever sailed or owned a boat. But, after reading the article, I decided that once arriving, settling into my new job, I'd buy a boat and enjoy the sailing lifestyle. Three days after arriving, I owned Lilinoe." [comment: would be interesting to see which magazine and the articles Cameron read...he could not remember...] First Trip Out...and Back... "The day after I purchased Lilinoe, was the first day to take her out. I had a slip at Pearl Harbor military marina. I'd met with the marina manager a couple times, requesting a slip further out on the pier, away from other boats. I did this because I was new to sailing and was not sure of my boat handling skills -- either going in or out of the slip. The manager assured me there would be no problem, and there are enough marina employees and other boat owners who would help me when needed.... Previous day I'd asked another fella at work to join me for the sailing adventure. His reply was he'd never sailed before. I told him no problem, the boat looks good and there are a lot of sailing books on board that would instruct us in everything we need to know! Getting everything started up and running was no problem. We had to back Lilinoe, and once clear of the slip, we could not get the transmission into forward. So we killed the engine, tied up and played with the cable connection to the lever controls. We got her into forward, but the transmission was stuck there. We headed out, figuring better stuck in forward than reverse. After an hour under power, we cleared the harbor entrance and spent the next couple hours tacking back and forth, trying to figure this sailing thing out. All-in-all, it was a good day and I began to get the feeling of Lilinoe and at least how to tack. Now, time to head back in! Dropped the sails, fired up the engine, only to be stuck in reverse again! We stopped the engine, and worked for an hour to get her into forward, but she was stuck in reverse. We decided to motor back to the marina, in reverse. All through Pearl Harbor channel, all we could to was wave to onlookers as we backed in for an hour and a half! Arriving at the marina, it was obvious to us that we could not back Lilinoe into the slip. It required a couple direction changes, and we could not do it with the reduced control while backing. We ended up stopping just outside the marina, killing the engine and again working to get her into forward. After some time, we managed to get her stuck in forward, again, and proceeded to head for the slip. The catch to the whole maneuver was the throttle was now stuck at about mid-range! We did a couple loops figuring our options...best one was to head on in, and once close enough to the slip, kill the engine and use our momentum to carry us on in. By that time, we should have enough people on the pier to help with the lines and getting us positioned. Remember, the slips are finger piers, with two boats side-by-side between the fingers. The boat next to mine was really nice, and owned by a senior military officer...last thing I wanted to do was ding his boat... Anyhow, everything was going well. I has my sailing buddy move farthest out on the pulpit so he could jump onto the pier once we got close enough. I brought Lilinoe around the final turn, lined up on my slip and reached down to kill the engine. The engine cutoff DID NOT WORK! I tried pulling the cable several times, moving the control lever, nothing worked...all the while, my buddy was yelling to "kill the engine and slow down...we were coming in too fast!" At this time, with the engine noise and the yelling, people in and around the marina were starting to take notice...I just knew they knew something neat was about to happen, and it was! Motor is still going, crew is still yelling, I'm still panicking...we hit the pier at about three knots. The pier was of the floating type, little more than a foot above the water line. When we hit, the boat kept going forward, riding up, over the pier along the keel. I can remember looking forward and seeing my crewmember hanging on in the pulpit, now probably 15 feet in the air with Lilinoe pointing skyward. Next, even with the motor running, all forward movement stopped and Lilinoe began the reverse slide back off the pier and out of the slip. As she was backing out, I yelled to my crewmember to jump from the pulpit to the pier. It took him a few seconds to regain his balance so he could jump. By then, Lilinoe was clear of the pier and still heading back. I yelled for him to jump and he said it was to far away...I said it was not...It was! He jumped, and went into the water a couple feet short of the pier. I decided to leave the cockpit, go below, open the engine cover and kill the engine manually...this took about 5 seconds! I was fast. When I got back to the cockpit, Lilinoe's reverse momentum had stopped, and with the remaining few turns in the screw, started a slow forward movement. On the pier, people came running down, to help with lines and pull my buddy out. FINALLY, the story ends... * got out for a day off sailing * at the request of the senior military officer owning the boat next to me, was granted a slip farther out on the pier...one by myself! |