After purchasing our Catalina 25 from a couple in Long Island, we needed to get her home to our marina in Westbrook, Connecticut. We had never captained a boat of this size before so Brian spoke to the owner Jerry, and asked if he would help out. We quickly came up with a plan where Brian would drive down to the Bridgeport Ferry and take the Ferry over to Port Jefferson, Long Island. Jerry would then meet him at the ferry and take him to the boat. They would sail across the sound to Branford and then we would meet them at a marina there and take Jerry to the Ferry in Bridgeport where he could get back to meet his family in Port Jefferson.
Brian would then spend the night on the boat with our son and sail the next day from Branford to Westbrook.
This seemed like a great plan. So Brian got up at 5 the next Saturday to get the process started. All seemed to go well until they started the sail. Of course there was no wind to help them along. They started to motor but quickly realized that Jerry had not filled up the gas tank and they knew they would never make it across. They turned back to Jerry’s home port realizing defeat. Since the trip would take 2 days, they would need to try again.
Brian returned home with some important lessons learned.
The next weekend, they gave it another try and this time despite the lack of wind again, they had a full tank of fuel. They made it without issue to Branford Brewers Bruce & Johnson’s marina. We got Jerry safely back to the ferry and home and now were officially the owners of a new old boat.
I met Brian for dinner and he and our older son spent the night on the boat. In the morning a friend met them and the 3 of them sailed the rest of the way to our home port in Westbrook.
As with most sailing experiences, you learn a lot from each one. This one certainly taught us that conditions will not always be what you want and you need to be prepared with alternatives. We never leave home without a full tank of gas…at least not with the boat.
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