Building and Sailing Thlaloca Dos

Thlaloca Dos was launched in May of 1975. In November we set sail for points south; sailing inside and outside depending on wind and weather. We arrived in Florida early the following year. Eventually we sailed south as for as Boot Key Harbor . There we spent most enjoyable two months in company with other boats, mainly Jaeger--"Bubba" and Linda Schill--and ”Bing" and Jane Grimsrud on Dursmirg. Boot Key harbor in those days was a far cry from what it is today, overcrowded.

 In May, our course set for Bermuda : we got to after an uneventful passage. Falmouth, England, was next. It was the year of one of the Single-handed Transatlantic Race's from Plymouth , England to Newport , R. I. . Listen in on the reports it spoke of terrible weather; of lost boats and lives. At that point our position was some 300 miles south of the bad weather area. We lay hove-to for lack of wind! The weather being so gorgeous, we were varnishing. But all along we had difficulty keeping our eyes away from the northern quadrant from where an unbelievably huge swell was coming from. The swell was literally the height of a mountain range, and perhaps half a mile between crests.  It had us very much concerned. When these mountains rolled underneath the boat, we looked into an abyss which seemed as deep as the Grand Canyon . The last time we observed such phenomenon was in the Indian Ocean , sailing in Thlaloca. But nothing extreme happened.  Three hundred miles west of the Scilly Islands , a westerly wind increased to force 10. No problem, however, T.D. (we refer to our good ship) did nobly, no sweat. After a long passage, a landfall feels pretty good, and Falmouth was no exception; more so to our dog, Dinghy. She was not allowed ashore, and this put her in a foul mood. Our next landfall, Calais , France was more dog friendly. There, after 35 days aboard, she sniffed the hind ends of other dogs for the first time again. We sailed as far as Amsterdam , where we moored the boat in a marina while visiting family and friends in Germany .   

Mid September we were ready to leave but a southwesterly wind blew too strong, which made departure impossible–and the English Channel , in inclement weather, is no place to fool around with. It curtailed our departure for a week. It was already October when we made Falmouth–considered late for crossing the Bay of Biscay . To make things worse, the wind kept on blowing hard from the southwest day after day.  Desperation drove us to a foolish move, we left.  

South of Ushant , the wind increased, eventually to storm force (Beaufort 11), we lay a hull. It was cold and extremely uncomfortable, and with a deadly coast to leeward intensely worrisome. Those were the longest 26 hours in our lives. Once it had moderated enough to carry sails again, we were unable to continue because the storm had mangled our selfsteering to pieces of twisted steel. We decided on sailing back to Falmouth , where we, with the help of friends, repaired the damage. By that time it was almost Christmas, and we were in no mood to leave. Thus we spent an unpleasant winter in Falmouth ; unpleasant because Falmouth attracts gales like a swamp does mosquitoes.

The following spring we sailed to Germany once more. Six weeks later we were back in Falmouth and in August crossed the Bay of Biscay . Onward we sailed to Madeira , the Canary Islands , the West Indies , and home to Virginia .