“For all his troubles, his skiff was sinless, and her sweetness sweetened him.”
—John Casey, Spartina
Steve Earley doesn’t sail like you and me.
Example: One night, he and his 17-foot open boat, Spartina, were anchored in a cove near Crab Point just off the Chesapeake Bay’s Honga River. Spartina is a John Welsford design that Steve built, and she is, in a word, sweet. Because she can maneuver in knee-deep water with her centerboard up, Steve can sail and anchor her in some pretty amazing places that most of us can only see on a chart. A very zoomed-in chart.
Such was this night off the Honga River, when he woke up, feeling the boat moving a little funny. He was sleeping under his boom tent to gain protection from the predicted thunderstorms, which were now on top of him. The boat was dragging into the marsh.
So, he did what he had to do, what he could do. He climbed overboard, and with lightning cracking open the pitch-black night all around and waves smacking his face, he walked forward and into deeper water. Chesapeake squalls aren’t anything to mess with; when the gusts slammed into the boat, they stopped him cold. Nevertheless, he persevered, until he finally got her
