Tanbark vs White Sails Part 1

When it comes time to picking sails for your boat, most people focus on sizes and shaped of the sails.

How high is the clew? 
How low is the tack? 
How full is the draft?

The sails will always be white, just like every other sail on every other boat. They do offer some selection of color when it comes to the UV strip on a furling headsail. What about the color of the sail itself?

There are two main colors of dacron available: White and Tanbark.

Back in the days of cotton sails, rot was a critical problem. To combat this, they would be tanned by soaking them in tannins from tree bark.The result was a stained sail called Tanbark that was more resistant to rot, mildew, and mold. The color these sails took on was a reddish brown. 

Then began the age of plastics and so cotton sails became a thing of the past, and so has the treatment process of tanning. Dacron is composed of polyethylene fibers which is white. 

White sails have many advantages:

They are cheaper
They can be seen from a very far distance
They are easier to see to trim for night sailing

Their cons are:

They are blinding to look at in the sun
They show stains and dirt instantly
They can't be seen in fog or haze

While they are less expensive, the price difference is only around 10-15%, which isn't much to pay when your eye comfort is at hand.

The argument about being seen from a distance is a good one to discuss. The idea is ships can see us far off on the horizon, but I don't think they actually look around. I have had them creep up on me multiple times, never contacting me on the radio or sounding their horn. I have spoken with friends who are ship captains, and they have told me that they don't look around too much because they rely on their radar screen where they can easily see sailboats on their display.  

The other argument is that if you are shipwrecked and need rescue, you can raise your main and they will see you to come to your rescue. If you are shipwrecked, you probably won't be able to raise the mainsail due to the damage sustained to the vessel. As far as being found, you should be carrying emergency rescue devices such as flares, orange fog, and an EPIRB. If you are solely relying on being spotted by your white sails for rescue, you many want to reconsider your emergency procedure protocol.

There is no discussion about trimming the sails by night. White sails will reflect the soft moonlight just as well as they will reflect the strong blinding sunlight. By night, the draft stripes will show up on the the white sails allowing one to properly trim the sails just as well as one could during the day. 

I know that I can't see my tanbark sails in the dark. They blend into the night sky and I am forced to either trim blind or blind myself by turning on a flashlight. This wasn't such an issue for myself and Maddie because we don't sail by night. We like to get a good nights sleep and continue sailing in the morning. In the bay, we anchor for the night, and offshore, we heave to for the night.

In Part 2, we will look more at tanbark sails and what they bring to the table.

Pets on board

Morty, our corgi, was doing the leg scratch with both feet when you would tickle his sides.

Summer Cruise Day 19

We decided to leave at the break of dawn to catch the tail end of the ebbing tide, be clear of the inlet, and ride the flooding tide up the bay. Luckily I set to free us from our slip much earlier than needed, turns out I needed all the time to get out of the slip.

We were behind a very beamy catamaran, the wind was blowing us onto the pier, and we had no water ahead of us. On the aerial picture below, we were tied up where the dinghy is in front of the cat. The cat was a bit further back. 

I untied and tried to prop walk out of the slip, but the wind was blowing me back onto the pier. Then I tried to spring out of the slip, but the wind once again pushed me right back into the slip. Last, I tried to ground the bow on the shallow water ahead of us and swing the stern out, then reverse hard to back out of the slip. This started to work, but then the wind picked up more and we drifted back into the slip. All these attempts seemed futile, as we were unable to get out of the slip. I decided to warp out of the marina without using the engine and this proved to work the best. 

I tied a 300' 1/2" three strand nylon rope to the bow cleat and hopped into Tooth (our rowboat) and rowed the line to the neighboring and windward pier. I tied the end off to the cleat on the pier and rowed back to Wisdom (our Morgan 45). Standing on the bow of Wisdom, I began pulling the warp line from the bow which pulled me right off of the pier, into the wind, and straight to the other pier. As we reached the other pier, I hopped off of the bow and pulled the stern in with a stern line. With the boat tied up to the neighboring pier, I walked it forward to the very end. After securing the dock lines, I raised the sails and released the lines. We were sailing out of the marina without the need to rely on our engine!

Once under sail, we were on a run out of the protected harbor. This helped as we were a slack tide, so we needed to get out of our cove as quickly as possible to catch the flood current that would wash us up the bay. 

Once out in the bay, the wind died completely. We moved along very slowly thanks to the current. The drifter and main were set and waiting for any puff of wind.

We sailed very close to Point No Point Lighthouse and saw more pelicans roosting on it.

A bit further North, we came across more pelicans!

As the day progressed, the wind continued to build. We switched from the drifter to the jib and were moving at a steady 7 to 8 knots. By dusk, the winds were holding steady around 20 knots. We decided to anchor soon and I found an anchorage on the chart that would serve as a wind block. Our plan was to hole in behind the hill and hide in the windshadow. 

As the sun set, the wind was blowing 25 to 27 knots steady. I had wished that we had reefed, but we didn't while the sun was still up. I thought about reefing in the entrance to the anchorage and thought that the rigging is able to withstand these immense forces while propelling us along at 9 knots. If I reefed, our speed would drop markedly and we would arrive at the anchorage even later. I hedged my bets, counting on the wind to drop as soon as we got behind land, and then needing the extra sail area.

We were full sail heading towards land, with high seas and strong winds entering a foreign harbor by night. As we entered, I noticed that the marked channel was very curvy, but the winds allowed us to make it through with only 1 tack. Our plan was to continue until the wind died and then drop the hook. We were going deeper and deeper into the anchorage waiting to find the wind shadow. 

All of a sudden, our speed went from 8 knots to 3 knots as the wind stopped all at once. We were waiting for this moment for quiet some time now and were pleased to know that we had arrived. We ghosted along to a small knoll in the middle of the bay where the water was only 10 feet deep and dropped the hook. We were a little more than a mile from any point of land but protected from the wind. 

After the sails were lashed down, the snubber tied on to the anchor chain, and dinner being prepared; I looked around on the chart plotter to see where we were exactly. We were in the bay just south of the opening to Deltaville! The thought crossed my mind to pull up anchor and go into there for the night, but the idea of navigating that shallow entrance in the dark was not convincing me to leave our quiet, remote, and protected anchorage. We stayed put for the night, sleeping soundly on our return North.

Summer Cruise Day 18

Once again, we awoke in the marina, peaceful and calm, ready to take Morty to shore to do his business. We walked to a nearby sandwich shop and then made our way towards Virginia Beach by car.

The weather forecast said that a thunderhead would be passing by around the mid afternoon. We could set sail after it passes, but Maddie wanted one more night with air conditioning, so we planned to cast off at the crack of dawn.

Maddie wanted a rematch at Mini Golf, being sore about losing yesterday. 

She lost again! The bet was who ever lost had to buy dinner and the winner got to choose where to eat. We strolled along and came across a Beatles themed restaurant called Abbey Road. 

After that we decided to drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel that we just sailed through. There were rest stops along the way where we could park and take in the scenery.

If you decided to do this drive starting on the southern end, be sure to turn around at the last scenic outlook. If you go any further, you have to pay the toll to head back South. That doubles the cost of the drive and you don't see much more. It was fun walking out on the fishing pier on the first part of the bridge. We remembered sailing past it earlier and having all the people on the pier waving at us. Then we stood there with all the people as a boat passed by and they all started waving, yelling out "There's lines in the water!" We instantly felt bad as we realized what had actually taken place.

On the drive, we encountered many seagulls that were hovering just above the guardrail. The strong winds were allowing them to keep flight without moving forwards. This day was awesome, but we were ready to begin our trip up the bay.

Summer Cruise Day 17

Today we were in Norfolk, tied up in a protected marina across from a naval yard.

We spent the morning tied up enjoying the air conditioning and letting the batteries charge up. They suffered a complete discharge while trying to make our way here and were still charging the following morning. 

Morty enjoyed being on shore again, he was protesting our time offshore by pooping in the cabin every night. He usually goes on the port bow, but instead he would hold it all day. If we didn't take him to shore, he would poop right in front of the steps of the companion way. If I cleaned it up during the night, he would poop again! One night he pooped three times!

When his feet touched land that morning, he was so happy! Running and jumping around, peeing on every bush he walked past!

We walked over to the marina office and paid for our days there, then learned that you need a car to get anywhere. When I lived on land and didn't have a car, I always rented from Enterprise since they will pick you up and drop you off, facilitating the rental process. That might be the case in Baltimore, but not in Norfolk. They told me over the phone that the driver wouldn't be able to make it since we were 4 miles away from the rental office. I explained to him that they have a 10 mile pickup radius and he insisted that we were too far away for the driver. I was rather pissed, but they turned out to be the only open rental on Saturday, so I got a cab and rented a car. While standing there, I saw the rental driver sitting in a chair, complaining about how he has to work so much! Then the attendant tells me not to drop my keys off in the box after hours because it is annoying to arrive to work and have all these keys to sort out first thing in the morning! Turns out, the whole store is run by a bunch of lazy people!

Aside from all of these drawbacks, the reason I like Enterprise is you can go in asking for the smallest, cheapest car and get upgraded. They don't seem to stock many cars, so when the car you asked for is rented, they upgrade you automatically. We got a full size car while paying for an econo-compact!

Arriving by boat always makes traveling interesting. You don't get dropped off in the hustle and bustle with everyone else, rather you slip in the side door to the town unnoticed, working your way into the heart of the city. We hopped in the car and drove to the closest movie theater to see "Pixels". It was nice to sit back in an air conditioned room, enjoying the entertainment while eating buttery popcorn after just having spent days out in the ocean miles from land. It made me realize that these small moments are what make life special! We arrived in a new port and instantly found ways to unwind and relax. 

After the movie, we drove to Virginia Beach and played a round of mini golf. We made friends with the people behind us as we played our holes. I had never played golf before, let alone mini golf; so when I won, Maddie blamed it on beginners luck. 

After that, we strolled around until we found a place to eat. We had no schedule, no rush, no commitments; just leisurely passing through. That night we went to sleep in the peaceful calm waters of the marina. We talked about leaving in the morning, but there was a storm passing by the next day, so we decided that we would leave after the storm passed.

Not having a schedule to follow makes sailing switch from stressful to care free! We set the sails and go with the wind. If the wind isn't blowing, we don't move very far. When we feel that we are done moving for the day, we either anchor or heave to. No rush, no stress, and no worries!