PALLAS
1943-1945 HAVANA
Pallas, # 32, was a Snorky class scow type
sailboat, flat bottomed, rectangularish, 12 feet overall and about
four feet wide. Our Yacht Club in Havana had a fleet of more than a
dozen and sponsored races every Sunday during the non-hurricane
season. My father bought this, my first sailboat in 1943 and right
away I began to learn about caulking, puttying, and antifouling
paint.
My buddies owned another dozen Snorky’s and
together we’d take our girl friends out for short sails, engage in
water fights or just sail out to the horizon and back. I’ll include
below some typical shots of us teenagers and the Snorky fleet
The great storms
that swept down from Canada, showering snow, sleet and rain from the
great plains to the East coast, would eventually cross the Gulf
Stream to batter Havana with high winds and humongous waves.
Thirty-foot masses of water built up momentum as 25 knot winds
propelled them across the ninety mile stretch of water that
separates Key West from Cuba to break against Punta Brava, a slight
outcropping one block from my high school. On lunch break, the macho
high was to touch the breakwater without getting soaked by waves
that more often than not spread spray 199 feet in the air.
It was during the
tail end of one of these northers, as they were called, that three
of us sailed our Snorky’s out of our reef protected anchorage and
into the ocean. Ocean waves form a pattern. After 4 or 5 extra large
waves, about two minutes pass when the waves are relatively small.
It was this period of calm that we would use to escape into the
ocean. Outside, the sailing was great, the water deep blue, the
breeze perfect at 15 knots. We chased each other with a bucket in
hand intent in soaking the next boat. A great time was had by all.
I had sailed out quite a few miles and when I
returned, I found that the other two boats had beaten me across the
reef. I sailed back and forth just outside of the shallow water,
waited for those 4 to 5 large waves to pass, then shot in. Problem
was that the wind had died and I was about half way across the reef
when I looked out to see a series of huge waves beginning to curl.
The first broke early and pushed us broadside towards shore. The
second broke on us. The boat somersaulted. We body surfed twenty
feet, then got hit twice more.
Our buddies in the other two boats came to the
rescue. Our Snorky floated right side up, submerged, the mast in
about 6 pieces. With the two buckets we re-floated Pallas and got
towed into the dock. My dad was not a happy person, but he did break
down and got me a new mast.
|