Kate Morgan

Kate Morgan
(inducted 2011)

Dear King Neptune -

Back in the 1980s, maybe the spring of 1982, I did a boat delivery from Bermuda to Larchmont Yacht Club. The owner of the boat, Steven Weiss, was not on board. His son, Andrew Weiss, was on board along with five other crew. We were all in our early twenties. The boats name was "Christopher Dragon," a 60 ft sailboat out of Larchmont Yacht Club, N.Y.

The delivery took 7 days. My memories included seeing dolphins jumping in the bow waves, sharks swimming parallel to the boat, sea turtles rising to the surface and washing my hair in the cockpit. I kept a mental calendar of days and nights. I guess not too well otherwise I could give the dates of the trip. I remembered a lot of the crew lost track of time. I always knew what day it was and what meal it was time for. I got to drive the boat a fair amount mostly when we sailed. But we did a lot of motoring and that ocean swell and the smell of fuel became difficult to take causing a feeling of nausea in my stomach. I finally placed a patch behind my ear. And you know, it worked.

A couple of us went swimming while out at sea. It was more like a dive in and get right out. There is something about the bottomless ocean that makes you very uncomfortable.

As we were getting closer to home I decided to go down below to start gathering up my gear. I glanced down at the cabin sole and my eye caught a glimpse of water jumping out from under the floor boards. "We're sinking", I said. "Water is sloshing around the floor boards." We took the boat out of gear, turned on the bilge pump, put a person on the manual pump and started flinging open the floor boards to see what was the matter. We pumped the bilge dry, found the leak; just a little rubber hose had disconnected. We reconnected the hose and with our adrenaline running through our bodies started to party.

Out popped the cold beers and up went the volume of the stereo until we reached the dock at Larchmont Yacht Club at 7am on Sunday. Upon our arrival, we were informed by the Commodore via VHF radio that we had awakened the entire harbor.

That's my Blue Water memory.

I spent my childhood cruising around Long Island Sound in my parent's motorboat. In 1986 I purchased a 46' motor sailor and lived aboard five years. I now live in Connecticut and race j/24s with Manhattan Sailing Club.

Sincerely, Kate Morgan