After many weeks of procrastination I take keyboard in hand and attempt to document the MN Potter Armada's voyage to Malmo. I was indeed looking forward to this as personally this would be my first voyage to actually "go somewhere" as opposed to just sailing.
The first harbinger was the grinding of a bad bearing emanating from the front of my Ford Mini-Van. Since we where a little late starting out on our 85 mile road trip anyway I decided to ignore it (later cost $500 to fix -- All wheel Drive). The trip continued without incident until about 30 miles south of the lake (and 30 miles from the nearest town) when my Tire failed. The entire tread peeled off on the back of the van, taking the exhaust and bumper trip with it. With the tire still holding air I decide to reduce speed to 20mph and continue. We made it into town where a service station had me fixed up with a new tire 1.5 hours later ($80). It took forever to peel the old tire off the rim with no tread to stiffen it!
We did finally arrive at the Flagship Inn reasonably intact although rather loud (muffler damage), with stories to share! Present were Tom & Kim (dog-less for the trip), Dave & Kris (w/ Matthew and Andrew), and Mike & Mary (w/ Kristine, DeAnna, Missy, Brian, and Rose the dog). There is also another gentleman there to check out the potters. He is probably lurking. Apologies, but I can't remember your name. He and Tom had gone out for a short sail while awaiting our arrival. (The getnleman's name is Peter Lock - Eric)
After rigging and launching without incident we took off on a broad reach for our destination - Malmo. Headed north on a broad reach with a whole 4 - 5 knots of wind we where screaming along at a knot or so (Trailing our dingy dubbed "Sanity" of course). Much communication over VHF allowed us to continue the conversations possibly in defiance of FCC regs which made it all the sweeter. My recollection is that the trip took about 5 hours overall, but we where aided by a slight wind shift to the south and an increase to about 6 - 7 knots. I was able to finish the trip on a dead run. I could pretty well keep up with my short rig at this point. I cheated and rigged my boat hook as a whisker pole to keep my lapper full.
About this time Tom & Kim have the lead and begin asking me where we are going anyway. I never did get the GPS Coordinates so we rely on landmarks. I tell Tom I seem to remember a large deserted beach with a bridge and a yellow pole barn. Somehow Tom & Kim find these all in the same spot and we head in. I think I started to hit bottom about 300 yards off shore, it was even more shallow than I recall.
As we arrive at our destination it becomes obvious why I couldn't reach the marina at Malmo to make reservations. It had burned down! Fortunately for us the bathrooms were functional in a separate building so our Porta-Head remains yet unused! We beach our boats and build a fire, setting up camp to cook dinner. Conversation abounds and after dinner the cigars are broken out and Dave and I indulge for the next hour and a half.
By this time it's getting dark and I think I swatted my third mosquito, so we decide to call it a night. As soon as we leave the fire Minnesota's finest attack with all the fury of the north woods. After a warp speed launch during which I sustained at least 87.5 bites we are out on the water and anchored. I don't know how many I killed that night, but I think half the bugs in the county decided to hide in my cabin that night! NOTE: remember the bug screens next time.
After a reasonable nights sleep we found our way back to shore to find the bugs had left, where we had breakfast. Discovering that the wind had kicked up a little chop and was still blowing from the south -- where we where heading of course!
I was the last to launch off the shallow beach. I decided to motor out quite a ways to be sure I could drop the daggerboard at least half way before I raised sail. We almost made it before our motor quit! We had some tense moments sailing off the shore which was rocky by now as the beach had ended, but finally joined up with the other two Potters and planned our return. We decided to take advantage of the south wind and head over to the west side of the lake before returning. The wind was "gusting" to about 10 knots as I felt something give on the rudder and found cracks in my tiller. I eased up and headed back for home port while the other two continued. About this time the wind all but quit still coming from the south. I was having to take it pretty easy on my rudder. About this time Tom and Kim showed up. They where heading back too. It's pretty tough to beat against a wind that light, thinking I would arrive at port in a week or so I tried to start up the motor again. It started right up but quit again. After some diagnosis I found the water pump had quit and the motor was overheating. So without a motor Tom and Kim took us under tow for the last 4 miles.
It was a long trip back but Tom & Kim's 7.5 hp Johnson was up to the task. Shortly before we arrived the Reins caught up to us screaming along in their Honda 4 stroke. As we arrive I assess the damage to my rudder and determine it a total loss. The tiller is cracked in three places, the fiber glass cheeks are cracked from a previous lapse in judgement (no further comment here), and there are cracks in the upper part of the rudder as well.
The trip back was uneventful, and I find myself thinking that I had allot of fun. In spite of all that went "wrong" we made our first voyage. We shared conversation, and fine cigars. I think I want more of this type of adventure. It was a bit expensive this time:
$80 - Tire
$500 - Front Bearing
$400 - New rudder
$110 - Fix outboard (new water pump and remove sand)
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$1090
On the other hand few of those things were actually caused by this trip they just all failed at once, so I expect the next trip will be less expensive. And of course nothing else could go wrong since it's all fixed now...
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