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V

isiting sailor Jeff Arnfield’s recent voyage was impressive. In just over 2 weeks, he logged over 500 miles aboard his 26-foot sailboat “Windward”. Then he departed from the script that most sailors follow. Instead of returning to a marina, he lowered his vessel’s mast, loaded her onto a trailer and drove back to his home port of Elizabethton, Tennessee. “Windward isn’t the prettiest boat at the ball” he says “but she dances the most”.

Windward near Oriental’s Town Dock

Jeff Arnfield

First the recent voyage.

This year, as he has for the past 4, Jeff loaded Windward onto a trailer, hauled her from Tennessee to Oriental and relaunched her at the state Wildlife Ramp. Then, over the next 2 weeks, he took 3 cruises.

The first outing took him to waters not often visited by cruising sailors. Leaving Oriental, he followed the Pamlico Sound North, overnighting in little-visited anchorages such as Long Shoal River and Stumpy Point Bay. Traversing Croatan Sound, he rounded Manteo on Roanoke Island then headed back to Oriental. Then went back out on 2 more cruises – one with his family, the other with his friend Sam Shafer.

Windward’s 2010 Voyage: Jeff keeps detailed accounts of his voyages under sail, including this map of his latest outing. Each leg is defined by a color which represents what crew, if any, he sailed with:
Red: Solo trip
Green: With his wife Laura and son Duncan
Blue: With his friend Sam Shafer

So what drives a sailor with an otherwise conventional life to such lengths?

“I need to sail once a week or bad things happen.” Jeff jokes. “I have a prescription to go sailing once a week”.

Jeff’s not kidding.

Bracelet and ship’s log

On his wrist, Jeff wears a yellow rubber bracelet. A few years back, he was diagnosed with cancer. The treatment was successful. Since then, as a cancer survivor, he’s had to go in for periodic monitoring. During one of his checkups, he says his “cancer markers came back elevated”. He and his health care provider discussed healthy changes he could add to his life, including, among others, stress reduction.

So, in addition to conventional treatments, his caregiver wrote him a scrip to go sailing “at least once per week”. It’s an order he’s followed with medical precision.

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Posted Wednesday November 10, 2010 by Bernie Harberts

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