Sailing the Charles, the Best Way to Experience Boston!

Weather: Winds W at 9 knots, 82F, Skies: Partly Cloudy , Sea-State: calm: 1011mb Time: 1700 - 1830

Crew: Captain Sparkles, Shea Liput Danielle Blais, Cindy Baker, Rita Johnson

Booked a trip sort of last minute to attend the PERT consortium in Cambridge, MA. This is a newish organization dedicated to improving the management of pulmonary embolism. The meeting was a great success, and when I arrived I noticed our hotel and the meeting were situated on the Charles River between MIT and the Massachusetts General Hospital. As we drove up to our hotel, I looked out the window of the cab to see dozens of boats sailing between the Harvard and Longfellow bridges.

A search on the googles introduced me to Community Boating Inc., the nation's oldest continuously running public sailing center, and a real gem of Boston. Costs were incredibly reasonable and provided access to their fleets of boats as well as sailing lessons. I quickly checked the weather and figured Thursday was the day to go. Now my only task was to convince the OSUWMC PERT to join.

Usually the pharmacists tell me what to do, but this time I knew I had the upper hand. I gently instructed them that we would be ducking out of the consortium 30 minutes early to go for a sail. Danielle had reservations about swinging booms and Shea about uncoordinated limbs, but I assured them this would be an opportunity not worth missing. Convincing Dr. Baker, our fearless leader and Rita, our nurse coordinator, would be a little more difficult. Fortunately, I had a back up plan. I had befriended two members from the FDA earlier that day and figured they would want to go on a nice boat ride if the rest of the OSUWMC PERT could not be convinced. However, as I was exchanging numbers with the FDA, the rest of the team opted in. In retrospect, the optics of the Feds and us sailing down the Charles may have been a little too scandalous given the large representation from the device and pharma industry at the consortium.

I went out ahead and secured our boat, a fixed keel version of the Rhodes 19. Qualifying to sail the boat consisted of a short interview with the dock master and the boat was prepped as I awaited for the rest of the PERT to arrive. With construction on the Longfellow bridge, this was not a strait forward trek but everyone arrived in one piece and we boarded our Rhodes 19, hull #5. The wind was out of the West shifting to SW with the Dock in lee. We sailed without a jib for ease of crewing and we slowly drifted out of port.

At first, the river was empty but as people got out from work, the strip of water between the Harvard and Longfellow bridges buzzed with activity as both the Community Boating fleet became activated and the MIT racing club started their afternoon racing practice. The sail consisted of up-wind and down-wind runs between the two bridges but the whole journey was very placid, in spite of all the boating traffic. The day itself with beautiful with pleasant temperatures and light wispy clouds over the dramatic background of downtown Boston.

My crew was quickly convinced that they were unlikely to capsize, and became more comfortable with the comparatively negligible heel of the fixed keel boat. That being said, Danielle continued to cover her head with each tack even though the boom was, at its closest, 18 inches above her head, and continued to earnestly point out any impending obstacle and even some we had already passed.

By 1830, however, the hard benches were starting to prod our less padded crew and we opted to head in. Even the approach back to the leeward dock went without any drama and without needing to drop the mainsail. From Community Boating, it was a short walk to the science museum where a dinner and reception was being held for consortium members. The museum featured many model boats, which kept me entertained as we happily recounted the experience of our Bostonian sail.