My mother received a footed jade box trimmed with brass from one of her girlfriends in the 1930s. On the top, a Chinese porcelain junk sails across a thin slice of jade. She told me, “This box came around The Horn to San Francisco aboard a sailing ship.” So it had to have arrived before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914. I always wondered what kind of ship it arrived on.
Howard, Your story reminds me of an experience, my brother, his wife, and my wife had right here in the Catalina Channel on Thanksgiving Day. I will try to be brief.
We were anchored on the windward side of Catalina when a Coast Guard Boat passed blasting a loud Warning "A major storm is headed this way, please move to the lee side or Cat Harbor". We immediately started sailing around the north end, towing our little 8-foot Dingle. But then it broke off and crashed on the shore rocks and was torn apart as we passed the north end of Catalina.
We then sailed around to Cat Harbor, hoping to put down anchors there, but then we quickly realized then that the two anchors down would not hold our boat off the shore in the raging wind. We would be grounded if we did not get away from shore. So I then decided that we might have better luck out in the open sea. As we sailed out we saw the Coast Gard towing in a large Power Cruisers and I figured that our 24-foot sailboat would do much better because we could take the 20 to 30-foot wave straight on the bow of the boat. We planned to sail safely to San Pedro harbor and the mainland. Our boat was old but had a planked hull and had weathered countless ragging storms. So we headed out with just a tiny Jib sail up. My wife and Sisterinlaw were down inside the cabin praying and my brother was inside hand pumping the bulge to get the water out that was being squeezed in between the planks of the hull. I was the only one that knew how to sail and I knew that everyone's life was in my hands. For this reason, I tied a lifeline to the boat in case I would be washed overboard. The waves were so high that we would go from deep down inside between waves and then to the top of the next one. It seemed like less than an hour had passed when I looked ahead and there were the cliffs of Portugues Bend right there close by! We would crash on the rocks if I could not make a sharp turn to the right. But that would be impossible because the mask and sail would Perl into the wave before us. We were bound to crash on the rocks when a large fright boat just offshore must have seen the fix we were in and blasted his horn very loudly as he stopped the large boat's forward motion. It then blocked the largest waves long enough for us to turn right and safely reach the breakwater opening. Once inside we had lighter wind and a peaceful sail to our Slip.
As a side note, we were still under sail and coasting into our Slip but a little too fast. We then crashed into tables that had been set upon the dock for someone's party. We sure were not very well accepted there but when my wife got out of the boat she kissed the dock and then we celebrated.
That's quite a story, Chuck. The waters around Catalina can be rough.
On a tender returning to a cruise ship from shore, I almost dropped into the ocean as waves lifted the tender away from the ship when I tried to step aboard. Thankfully, we're both here to tell the tale.
Thank you for your comments.
My mother received a footed jade box trimmed with brass from one of her girlfriends in the 1930s. On the top, a Chinese porcelain junk sails across a thin slice of jade. She told me, “This box came around The Horn to San Francisco aboard a sailing ship.” So it had to have arrived before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914. I always wondered what kind of ship it arrived on.
Howard, Your story reminds me of an experience, my brother, his wife, and my wife had right here in the Catalina Channel on Thanksgiving Day. I will try to be brief.
We were anchored on the windward side of Catalina when a Coast Guard Boat passed blasting a loud Warning "A major storm is headed this way, please move to the lee side or Cat Harbor". We immediately started sailing around the north end, towing our little 8-foot Dingle. But then it broke off and crashed on the shore rocks and was torn apart as we passed the north end of Catalina.
We then sailed around to Cat Harbor, hoping to put down anchors there, but then we quickly realized then that the two anchors down would not hold our boat off the shore in the raging wind. We would be grounded if we did not get away from shore. So I then decided that we might have better luck out in the open sea. As we sailed out we saw the Coast Gard towing in a large Power Cruisers and I figured that our 24-foot sailboat would do much better because we could take the 20 to 30-foot wave straight on the bow of the boat. We planned to sail safely to San Pedro harbor and the mainland. Our boat was old but had a planked hull and had weathered countless ragging storms. So we headed out with just a tiny Jib sail up. My wife and Sisterinlaw were down inside the cabin praying and my brother was inside hand pumping the bulge to get the water out that was being squeezed in between the planks of the hull. I was the only one that knew how to sail and I knew that everyone's life was in my hands. For this reason, I tied a lifeline to the boat in case I would be washed overboard. The waves were so high that we would go from deep down inside between waves and then to the top of the next one. It seemed like less than an hour had passed when I looked ahead and there were the cliffs of Portugues Bend right there close by! We would crash on the rocks if I could not make a sharp turn to the right. But that would be impossible because the mask and sail would Perl into the wave before us. We were bound to crash on the rocks when a large fright boat just offshore must have seen the fix we were in and blasted his horn very loudly as he stopped the large boat's forward motion. It then blocked the largest waves long enough for us to turn right and safely reach the breakwater opening. Once inside we had lighter wind and a peaceful sail to our Slip.
As a side note, we were still under sail and coasting into our Slip but a little too fast. We then crashed into tables that had been set upon the dock for someone's party. We sure were not very well accepted there but when my wife got out of the boat she kissed the dock and then we celebrated.
That's quite a story, Chuck. The waters around Catalina can be rough.
On a tender returning to a cruise ship from shore, I almost dropped into the ocean as waves lifted the tender away from the ship when I tried to step aboard. Thankfully, we're both here to tell the tale.