Sea Scouts Ship Dragon - Ship 584

Sea Scout Ship 584 Fall Cruise 2009

This is the recounting of Sea Scout Ship 584's Fall Cruise on Sept 25-26, 2009 by Emily A Wheaton, SSS584 Committee Communications Ofcr. Friday evening, all went well, rafting the 22.8 powerboat Glendi up to a 23' O' Day sailboat Calypso and rowing people and gear out to the boats, the 27' Buccaneer sailboat Mirage and a 27' Catalina sailboat StarBreeze which were anchored nearby as well. The night came on and everyone settled down to sleep, anxious for the morning and our adventures to begin. I snuggled into my sleeping bag in the center of the main cabin as Shayna L in the V-berth, Nick W. in the aft cabin, and boat owner George B in the cockpit on his fold out lounge snuggled into their respective beddings and fell asleep listening to the lapping of the water against Glendi's hull.

The morning broke bright and sunny on the fog-covered Thames River. I was the second to awake as George was already stirring. I quietly slipped out of bed and started preparing for the day by changing clothes and stowing my sleeping bag, clothing and other gear. Pretty soon Nick and Shayna woke up and did the same, taking turns in the port-a-potty. The Mirage rafted up to Glendi's port side, with Calypso on the starboard side and StarBreeze's crew had rowed over in a dinghy. Breakfast was interesting, a camp stove was set up on the aft deck of the cockpit and water was started to boil for coffee/hot chocolate and some in a large dutch oven for cooking eggs set up 2 to a bag with either cheese, onion or green peppers or all three, depending on the request. It was a rather interesting experience as I had never had eggs like that before, but it was delicious and a couple of the youth got to work on part of their galley requirement for rank.

As the crews went back to their respective boats, we all prepared to get underway and found that we had company on the river as the Coast Guard Cadets were practicing for a regatta. The Project Oceanography boat also made its presence known as we started toward the Thames River/Gold Star Bridge. Glendi was carefully weaving around the sailboats making sure everyone and everything was ok. By the time we reached the Amtrak/Thames River bridge and requested it be raised for us, the Mirage was already under sail with the Sea Scout colors hoisted and Calypso raised her mainsail as they floated under the bridge, the StarBreeze waiting until just past the bridge to raise her mainsail. It was a beautiful day, the wind was perfect, the sun shone brightly and we were all ready for a great day of sailing. After maneuvering around the SeaJet and Cross Sound ferry, snapping a very cool picture of our 3 sailboats with the bridge as the background, Glendi headed to the mouth of the river to see what the wind was like there as a precursor to the direction the sailboats should head. We had planned on Fisher's Island, but thought Camp Harkness for lunch sounded better as the wind was more favorable for the sailboats to head there. Glendi zoomed back up toward our sailboats and relayed the suggestion. The Mirage was the first of our sailboats out of the mouth of the river heading toward Harkness, then StarBreeze and Calypso. We anchored off the Harkness handicap beach and Calypso's crew made sandwiches, two of the youth delivering them by way of a rowboat, to each of the boats.

As it was already 3pm by the time we all had lunch and relaxed a bit, we knew of an impending storm coming and turned on the vhf weather channel. The forecast was rain, heavy downpours and 5-8ft waves. As we had planned to go to West Harbor, Fisher's Island, NY, this plan was voted on by the youth and they agreed to err on the side of caution and go back to Kennedy's Beach for a campout dinner and then home. No one seemed to like the idea of sailing in the rain.

As we all headed back toward the mouth of the river, Mirage put out her Jinnaker and looked very pretty with blue/white stripes leading the way.

Back at Kennedy's Beach, resetting the StarBreeze's stern anchor was yucky at best with the black/gray mud caked on it and even though it was rinsed off for the most part, it still made a mess of Glendi's aft deck. Calypso anchored closest into the beach, then StarBreeze, then Mirage was farthest out.

After rowing all the gear and crews ashore, dinner was a delicious chili, with spicy condiments on the side, potatoes and onions cooked in the fire and a dump cake.

All in all a good day of sailing for the final cruise of the summer for Sea Scout Ship 584-The Dragon, out of Groton, CT.