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H&S Scene High Waves, Man = = = = = = = ^ ^ ^ Against High Winds Make A month before the tall ships sailed into New York harbor last July in celebration of the Bicentennial, Houston AAAS manager Tom Chambers set out on a five-day sea adventure that would take him through the unpredictable waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Treacherous reefs, seventeen-foot waves, loss of radio communication and a vicious storm at sea didn't deter Tom and his fellow crew members from sailing the 650 miles from Galveston to Vera Cruz that make up the course of the Regata Amigos. The regatta is a biennial event which was first held in 1968. In 1976, twenty-four ships participated in the race to one of Mexico's busiest port cities. Tom was on board LaVida, a thirty-four-foot single-masted sailboat owned by his friend Gus Brann. Two of Gus's friends, Bert Foster and Dale Larsen, and his two teenaged sons, Ricky and Robby made up the remainder of the crew. Since Bert was the only one aboard with previous experience in ocean racing, the rest of the crew viewed their upcoming sailing venture with a mixture of excitement and trepidation in the weeks before the regatta. The crew's fears subsided during the first four days of the race as clear skies and calm waters made for smooth sailing. Because of strong, steady winds, La Vida was able to fly her spinnaker, the large head sail used in running before the wind, during most of the voyage. The sloop was under sail twenty-four hours a day, with the crew members taking turns in pairing off for three watch shifts. They used the Swedish watch system in which night watches are shorter than those held during the day The one disturbing event during those first few days was the loss of ship-to-shore radio communication which meant that the people aboard La Vida were completely cut off from the outside world. A welcome diversion was the arrival of a school of dolphins that swam alongside the boat, providing some unexpected companionship for the sailors. The relative tranquility of the voyage was broken on the final day of the race by a severe lightning storm. La Vida was tossed around in the Gulf by While Tom Chambers was battling the winds and waves in the Gulf of Mexico last summer, Dan Harrison was battling a 120-pound maneating shark in the Atlantic* Dan, a member of the Executive Office EDP Development group, was on his first shark-fishing expedition and was lucky — or unlucky — enough to catch two of those denizens of the deep his first time out* Shark fishing is not a sport for the fainthearted or the lethargic — the hours are long and hard* Dan and his cousin Robert Adamson, the owner of the thirty-eight-foot cabin cruiser they used, left Long Island at 5 A*M. and faced a four-hour run before they could even wet a hook* It took them that long to reach a point thirty-five miles offshore where the waters would be warm and deep enough for sharks* The equipment Dan and Robert used was standard deep-sea-fishing gear — a fiberglass rod and reel equipped with a static sixty-pound-test line* This means that the maximum weight the line can hold without breaking is sixty pounds* Having baited their hooks with squid, Dan and Robert secured their rods in harnesses around their waists and began chumming — throwing chopped-up oily fish into the water — in order to attract the sharks* Most sharks feed on fish, shellfish and even on smaller sharks* They have a keen sense of smell which, in some cases, enables them to track down prey as far away as a quarter mile* "Patience is a necessity in any type of fishing, and shark fishing is no exception," according to Dan* He and Robert spent three hours chumming and watching for fins before a six-foot Mako went for the bait and began tugging wildly on Dan's line* In order to keep the shark from breaking the line, he put a drag on the reel which enabled the fish to run with the line until it tired* Then Dan would reel in furiously before the shark regained its strength and began stripping off line again* The Mako, a ferocious fighter
Object Description
Title |
H&S scene High waves, high winds Man against make |
Author |
Anonymous |
Personal Name |
Chambers, Tom Harrison, Dan |
Office/Department |
Haskins & Sells. Executive Office Haskins & Sells. Houston Office |
Abstract | Illustrations not included in the Web version. |
Citation |
H&S Reports, Vol. 14, (1977 winter), p. 30-32 |
Date-Issued | 1977 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | HSReports_1977_Winter-p30-32e |