By Stan Morgan
Treat yourself and spend some heartwarming time with Stan Morgan’s fourth memoir featuring his memory of 
a sailing trip in a nineteen foot racing sloop. You will be delighted with the story and relish reliving with Stan his teenage sailing journey.
LIGHTNING IN A LIGHTNING
By Stan Morgan
The Lightning class sailboat is 19’ in length and was designed by Sparkman and Stevens in 1939. Since that time, over 15,500 have been built.
We bought our Lightning, Rambler, in the early 1960’s. Our number was 949 and we kept it out of the water at Leschi Marina on Lake Washington. There was a large fleet of Lightnings at the marina and during the year, there were many sailing regattas. My dad, brother and myself participated in many of these regattas. They were very competitive.
Unfortunately, we did not win many as we quickly discovered that there was a boat company in Seattle, Clark Boat Company, that was building fiberglass Lightnings which were much lighter and faster than our wooden boat. We did win or place in some races. In 1961 we were second in the Frostbite race. In 1965 we were first in the Fall Frostbite race and in 1967, we placed third in the Opening day Race. There might have been more, but these are the only ones that I have documented. If you notice, that 2 races we did well in were the Frostbite series. As I remember, we had a much better chance in these races as there was less competition due to the poor and sometimes very nasty weather.
The “Rambler” was not just used for racing. I took my friends sailing on Lake Washington many times and had a terrific time.
Now for the “Lightning in a Lightning” story
One day my best friend Rob and I decided that the “Rambler” needed a taste of salt water. But…how were we going to get the boat from Leschi, through the ship canal, and through the locks in order to sail across Puget Sound? No problem…My dad and I had build a portable motor mount that fit on the transom of “Rambler”. We had a 2 HP Elgin (made by Sears) that fit on the motor mount. We decided we were set.
We set out on a beautiful summer morning for our overnight adventure from Leschi with a chart, some food, anchor, a tarp to put over the boom to keep us dry from the dew at night, sleeping bags, mooring lines, bumpers, and a kerosene stove. Our destination was Blake Island. The whole island is a Washington State Park and has a small bay, and in those days, a small dock. It is about 10 nautical miles once you get out of the locks.
We made it through the ship canal, through the locks (I still cannot believe that went through the locks with only a 2 HP motor moving an 800 LB boat) and into Puget Sound. We set our sails and had a beautiful sunny sail across Puget Sound and tied up at the dock on Blake Island. The weather was calm. We hiked around the island and came back to the boat. Everything looked great and the bay was still very calm. We fired up the kerosene stove and cooked dinner…probably canned chili. I think we played some cribbage until dark. Sleeping accommodations were not the best. Rob had the port side seat and I had the starboard seat. We unrolled our sleeping bags, put the tarp over the boom, and tried to get some sleep. The weather was still calm.
About midnight, we were awakened by the boat bumping against the dock. By 2:00 AM, there was some lightning above us and the wind had really started blowing and now the boat was slamming against the dock. The bay has very little protection from a southerly wind. We had to move. We took the tarp down and had a very hard time moving the boat away from the dock. It was very dark, the wind was blowing, and all we had was a flashlight.
We needed to get to the leeward side of the island. It was very dark and I had a very difficult time seeing the shoreline. Due to the waves, I wanted to stay as close to the island as possible without running aground. I had Rob attach a line to the anchor and continue to throw it overboard to see how much water we had. We finally rounded the island and got into some calmer water. We anchored, not really knowing where we were, and tried to get back to sleep. I really could not sleep much as I did not know if the tide was coming in or going out. At first light, we could see where we had dropped anchor. We had anchored in a good spot so we got back into our sleeping bags and got a little more sleep. After we ate some breakfast and stowed our gear, we pulled the anchor and set sail for Seattle. As we rounded the island, the waves and wind picked up just as the night before. The wind was blowing from the south, so we only put our spinnaker up and sailed back down Puget Sound to the locks, through the ship canal into Lake Washington and finally to Leschi Marina.
I went to call my parents to tell them we had made it home. There was a pay phone at the marina and I had to ask someone to dial the phone for me as my fingers were too cold to work the phone.
What a memorable and fun, most of time, trip!
Years later, my mom told me that of all the things I did growing up, she lost more sleep over that one than any other.
I would like to dedicate this story to my friend and good buddy Rob Norrie. May he rest in Peace.
CREDITS:
Writer: Stan Morgan
Photographers: Stan Morgan, Tim Olson
Graphic Designer: Tim Olson
Editors:Lorelie & Tim Olson
NESTER url: https://notesfromanester.com
To read Stan Morgan’s previous post, SAILING MEMOIR 1 – CHRISTMAS IN JULY – click here
