Jan. 9, 1904.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
TINO 
HjII to Bristol 
BY WILLIAM LAMBERT BARNARD, BOSTON, MASS. 
The Story which wo 1 the First Ff'ze of $75 in Forest 
aud Stredin ** Cr isit g 0>n petition. 
(Concluded from page 16.) 
By this time the wind was blowing a gale, and Ayaya 
reared and plunged so that the compass was useless. We 
could not steer her even under the reduced sail, so low- 
ered the mainsail away until just a bit of the peak re- 
mained hoisted and the rest bellied away to leeward 
against the lazyjacks. 
The night was as dark as it well could be, and all that 
we could see through the rain squalls was the Bishop and 
Clerks' flash. We flew for that like a shot out of a gun, 
and passing, as nearly as we could judge, half a mile in- 
shore of it, held on N. W. for the Hyannis bell buoy. We 
ought to have raised some lights on shore soon after this, 
but were unable to see a thing. I cannot find words to do 
justice to the darkness; the water was positively black, 
save for the crests of the seas and smoking foam in our 
lee. It rained incessantly, and rain squall after rain squall 
passed over us, seeming like blacker streaks in an in- 
tensely black sky. Standing at the tiller I could just make 
out the stem head. 
We ran dead before it for some time. Sparks wanted 
to anchor, but I feared the results when our long scow 
overhang should be turned to face the seas, so held along. 
But the Hyannis Lights are very weak, and, deprived of 
the use of our compass, we might get so close in before 
seeing anything as to pile up on the beach. Three feet is 
considerable draft around Hyannis. and tlie Ayaya's form 
is not such as to make beaching pleasant. So I finally de- 
cided to heed Sparks' requests and anchor. If she did not 
hold it would be ea.sy to reset the jib, when we would be 
no worse off than before. 
So at ten o'clock we rounded up and let go the anchor 
(we had but one, a thirty-pounder), there was no trouble 
in paying out the slack. I gave her the whole of the 
road — about forty fathoms — and made fast with two half 
hitches on the bilts; the very end of the warp was made 
fast to the mast. 1 furled the jib while Sparks did as 
much for the mainsail. To our great relief the anchor 
held finely, and the seas were just long enough for her 
to take them without pounding. J have never known the 
seas in the Sound to be as long as they were then, 
although they are always longer in easterly tlian in 
westerly weather, and they ran fully six feet from trough 
to crest. In fact, I think I might say seven feet without 
fear of exaggeration. The tide held us on a bit of a slant 
to the wind, so that we rolled to siich an extent that we 
could not stand or sit without holding on to something, 
and every other sea broke aboard— the cockpit was about 
half full all the time. I was thankfiil that it was self- 
bailing (you could hardly call it water-tight), and that the 
companionway sill was high above the cockpit floor. As 
it was, the water found its way below in a constant 
stream around the mast and through the slide to the 
cuddy. 
Sparks braced himself in the cockpit, with his arms 
wrapped arovtnd the main-boom, where he swung to and 
fro like the pendulum of a perpetual motion machine. I 
could not stand still, so went below and bailed. Befo:\; 
I left Hull, Keyes told me the pump was no good. He 
was quite right. I would bail out five buckets full and 
then.go forward to examine the chafing gear. I had used 
a stout piece of canvas for that purpose, but after an 
hour and a half it had chafed clean through and had to . 
be renewed. I renewed it twice more during the night. 
As I kneeled on her bow she would dive straight through 
every sea, so that I went, or seemed to go, entirely under 
water. It was pleasant rather than otherwise, for the 
water was several degrees warmer than the air. After a 
trip forward I would begin bailing again. 
Sunday, July. 19. About 2 A. M. the gale reached' its 
maximum strength. By that time I had wearied of bail- 
ing, so stretched out at full length in the water in the 
cudd;^ for a short rest. Sleep was out of the question in 
so lively a cradle. But the water got to washing over my 
face, so I resumed bailing. 
Just before daybreak a steamer passed in very close 
aboard— so close that we were afraid they did not see our 
ancljor light, which was made fast to the peak halliard, 
so WiC got out our other lantern and waved that until she 
sheered off. 
At 4 :30 it was still dark, owing to the low clouds and 
the rain, but we decided that the wind was moderating, so 
decided to get under way. I went forward to cast the 
lashings off of the jib. While I knelt there she dove 
through a sea and swept me overboard as neat as a pin.„ 
1 managed to get a grip on the rail as I went, and so was 
able to grasp the forestay with my other hand. T then 
had : an unsought . f6r a:nd . un welcCrne ; chance to measure - 
the height~of "the seas,' First the solid water went over 
my head and then, as she lifted through the wave, she 
would pick me up until my feet x:ame out of the water, 
although I rwas "hanging; full length from the stem head, ' 
I can reach. eight feet eight JncheS, so. tkatj,; allowing for 
her freeboardv it is fair to' say thatr the seas were -weill-.dver -. 
six "f-eet ■.high." ■ M.y -water- -s.oaked. clothing. •'B''as hea\^"and. 
il took four' attempt's .before 1 was able to- p-uU. myself , . 
»bpar4 «ffain» Sparks apt l^^r, but ;ttis5e4 »^e-^4;.>- 
came stnnSbhng forward just as T regained the deck. My 
misadventure occupied but a few minutes, although it 
seemed somewhat longer. 
As sooii as I got back aboard we set about getting the 
anchor under foot. This was no easy task; we simply 
could not hold her when she dove into a sea. The warp 
would burn through our fingers like a streak of lightning, 
and but for the fact that the end was belayed to the inast. 
we should have lost it more than once. So, finally, I sat 
down on the deck with my feet braced against the bitts, 
and hove in on the road as she ranged down a sea, while 
Sparks held her with a turn around the mast when she 
fetched up on the next one. Even this method proved so 
strenuous that we had to take several breathing spells. It 
Ayaya anchored ofif Hyannis. 
was forty minutes from the time we started heaving in to 
the time when we broke out the anchor. The moment I 
felt it come clear I yanked it aboard and gave her the 
storm jib as quickly as I could. Her head paid off at 
once, and. with one bad roll in the trough of the sea, she 
began scooting down the wind. We hoisted the peak 
about four feet to give her some after sail, but did not 
take the boom out of the crotch. 
Soon after we got under way the rain held up a bit. 
and we sighted the tip end of Great Island about one mile 
distant E. by S., showing that we had approximated our 
Carina at Hyannisport. 
position fairly well. Under our reduced sail we boiled 
aw^y toward shore, passed in by the east end of Hyannis 
breakwater, and anchored in the midst of the small boat 
fleet off the Hyannisport -pier at 5 :S5 A. M. A scene of 
desolation confronted us. Two small boats had filled ^nd 
sunk at their moorings, four had gone ashore, several 
were afoul of each other, and others had booms or rig- 
ging adrift. We subsequently learned that the wind had 
blowri sixty miles_an hour during the greater part of the 
night. Sparks said that in thirty-seven years' experience 
at sea he had never passed a more uncomfortable night. 
A soft-, fife-hing schooner that came in, at mid-night re- 
ported feeing boarded by a sea, just outside Bishop and 
Clerks' Light that sma.shed two dories to pieces and 
washed one 6f her atichor? overboard. 
Just aftet we had anchored I saw my uncle putting off 
to Uis .yawl and. repeated -hailing brought him over to us, 
alongside. To say that he was astonished to hear. thnt '^'e 
had been out in the blow, all night and had just come m. 
is putting it mildly. We did not keep him wailing loijg, 
but plotting a hasty furl in the mainsail, grabbed our grip.^ 
and went ashore. hen we opened our bags Sparks 
lottnd his entire outfit wringing wet, while the only d'-y 
articles of which I could boast were a handkerchief an<:l 
an undershirt. Borrowed clothing, a good rub down and 
some hot tea soon put us to rights, and we p'assed most dI 
the day in the land of nod. 
Monday, July 20, was the finest day of the whole trip 
as far as weather went. The sea was sriooth, the sun 
warm, and a gentle S. W. was blowing when we hoisted 
our sails at 8:45 A. M. My uncle in his ya v\l. the Carina, 
was to accompany us as far as Newport. J'isi as we were 
about to break out the anchor we discovered that our cen- 
terboard rope had parted. J"st what ca"=pd it to "ive 
way at that moment I do not know. The Carina had just 
• slipped her moorings, so I hailed her and told them to go 
on without us. There were only two ways to reniedv our 
mishap. One was to swim underneath her and tie a ne y 
fall to the centerboard, and the other was to ha-d out. I 
tried the first without success, and another fellow triel 
and he failed. There were no facilities for hauling oitc 
and it would not do any good to beach her, as it was 
i;ecessary to have her keel three feet above the ground 
before the matter could be fixed. That is the great 
trouble with boats whose centerboards are all in the keel. 
It they get a few miles from a marine railway they are 
helpless in times of trouble. 
We finally got the board back into the box and held it 
there by means of a sling. By that limPj the afternoon 
was well started, the tide in the sound had turned a.gain'^t 
us and the wind (dead ahead) had breezed to a double 
reef extent, so we delayed our departure to the following' 
day. 
Tuesday, July 21, the weather was most disagreeable. 
A strong S. E. wind was blowing and a series of hard: 
rain squalls swept in from the sea. It was not a d-'y to 
leave port in such a boat as the centerboardless Ayava,^ 
but I had already been longer on tlie trip than 1 had ex- 
pected, so was anxious ^o get the boat to Bristol .and be 
rid of her. Accordiiagly I decided to make a .start, 
v.^eather or no weather. We according-ly donned our oiV- 
skins once more, and under double reefed mainsail alone 
pot under way at 9 A. M. 
Once out of the harbor we could lay the course w-itlt; 
ej.'-ed sheets, and as she did not have q-iite life enough to 
suit me, we cracked on the big jib soon after passing out 
by the west end of the breakwater. This was a big help.' 
We had not gone far before we lost sight of the land, . 
owing to the rain. 
At ten o'clock we caught a nasty rain squall which 
brought moi;e wind with it. This was just as we were 
ncaring Collier's Ledge beacon. We dowsed the jib dur-, 
ing the squall. The rain fell furiously in big drops that'; 
bounced off of the sea when they struck .it. The wnnd. 
hauled to S., so that, with the leeway we made ownng to' 
the lack of centerboard, we were barely able to make good: 
cur course even with our sheets pinned in hard. When: 
the squall let up we reset the jib. For a while the wind; 
w-as very light. As it continued, southerly w-e essayed a : 
hitch offshore because the prevailing wind in the Sound is : 
S. W., and I thought that I might, as well climb out to ,^ 
weather before it absolutely headed us. But • going . ot?- 
shore in the light air under reduced canvas and straight' ' 
into the S. E. swell was an almost impossible task — :the ^ 
shock on meeting each sea spilHng all the wind out of our :' 
sails. We consequently went back on to the port , tack. 
At eleven o'clock another rain squall passed over us, : 
bringing little wind, but what there was of it was S. W-— '., 
nearly dead ahead. We slatted through it somehow, and 
when it let up the weather began to clear off for good, so ■ 
tha,t w-e shook out our reefs. , ; 
By this time we were fairly well down toward Succoii- . 
uesset Point. The S. W. wilid fell off to a mere series 
of chills in which w^e managed to out-drift a large c^.r- 
boat which had come out of Cotuit and was apnajentiy 
bound for the Vineyard. The west going tide kept us 
tnoving forw^ard all the time despite the lack of wind. V\'c ■ 
worked to weather quite close in by the Point and be- ' 
tween it and Succonnesset Shoal, the water being deeper 
I'lear the Point than further out. 
Finally the wind came east about one o'clock,' and we 
slowdy drew down Vineyard Sound, striking across ' 
L'Homnie Dieu Shoal and ju«t west of Hedge Fence 
Shoal, crossing the Sound on a slant in order to go out- 
side of the Elizabeth Islands which run out about W. S. ' 
W. from Woods Hole. 
The tide turned against us at two o'clock, and the rest '• 
of the afternoon was a slow drag. At times the wind ' 
would take on enough strength to drive us through the ' 
v/ater at a very -good rate of speed, and at other times it 
would let up to such an extent that we made" little or no 
progress over the bottom.' But so long as the wind -was 
fair and We were able to stem the tide I, wanted to keep ' 
her going, so passed Vineyard Haven and its riiarine rail- 
v;ayS without Stopping. We' met a nunlber of. steam ' 
yachts which Were evidently the vanguard of the New ' 
York, Y. G- fleet which was due to run from Newport to ' 
Yiney^rd Haven that day. We also met quite a fleet Of ' 
Buzzard's Bay '21ft. and i|ft/k«Q?kabo'ut5, -bO.nnf oy-e^ »^ -■ 
fleetj I suppose; ^'. ^ ; ' ^ •■■■;- ' ' ■■' • '■ ■''■■'■ 
