I started my first sailing class this weekend. We were to learn how to manoeuver the small single-handed Sabot boats, little 8' dinghies with a single main sail. Being nothing of a dare-devil and having only mediocre balance, I was both apprehensive and excited about sailing at all. And the first class on saturday was hard.First of all we learned to tie a couple of knots: The Figure-Eight knot, a simple stopping knot (and the first climbing knot!), and the Cleat Hitch, to tie our boats up to the dock. We then reviewed the terminology for the different parts of the boat: the hull, mast, main sail, boom, rudder, tiller, traveler, boom-vang, leeboard, main sheet and bow-line, so that we would know how to refer to them. And we learned the basics of the Wind Clock, such as the irons, the beam reach and the runs, and we were taught the principles of tacking.
We were then taken down to the dock where we were shown how to rig the boat, then given each our boat and told to launch off. After that we were basically on our own. The wind was blowing really hard from the dock that day, towards the beach on the other side of the cove. I was impressed at how fast I could sail out of the dock and I dutifully prepared myself for performing my first tack. Now, the first thing to do when tacking is to look and make sure you're not gonna get in somebody elses way! When I came to the flag however where we were supposed to tack, five boats were already clogged up there, blocking the way. I figured I would just sail around them, which I then did, allowing myself ample space before I would try my skills in the art of tacking. But then a motorboat got into my way, I waited for it to pass, but by the time it did, I had almost reached a group of surfers taking a wind surfing class. At this point I could only head back, so now I tacked, found my self upwind and my boat pretty much stopped.
"Now, what do you do?", I thought to myself. I figured that where I was now was probably these irons, they had talked about during our lessons. So far, so good. What they hadn't told us however, was how to get out of these irons once you got there. I looked around me now to see how my class mates were handling the situation. Well, two of them had cap sized close by and were now in the water, clinging to the hull of their boats, a bunch of people still seemed to be stuck by the tack flag, a couple of people seemed to be heading out of the cove, not willfully! And I now saw three boats stranded up on the beach. Which is exactly what was about to happen to me, I now started drifting backwards, I hung on to my main sheet and the tiller and tried to steer away from the beach but in vain, I had come to close to the beach and my leeboard was now up, making me drift whichever way the wind wanted. And now my rudder came off, as my boat hit the ground ...
Well, I got out of the boat, pushed it away from the beach, jumped back in, fixed the rudder ... but before I could put the leeboard down the boat had already drifted in again. I pulled my boat up to another boat that was stranded close by and she offered to push me out but refused to try to launch off herself, saying she had already given up on it. Alright, she now held the boat while I put both the rudder and the leeboard out, then gave me a good push, enough for me almost to take off, but not quite. Instead, I barely made it around a little curve, then stranded again.
About eight people or so were now stranded on the beach where I had landed the first time. Three more people had tipped their boats and were being rescued by our sailing instructors. The rest of my class mates were out of sight. Hey, maybe they just blew out of the cove, into the main bay? I tried once more to get afloat. The wind was really strong and it took all my forces to keep the boat still in the water. I figured the only way would be to point the boat in a direction perpendicular to the wind. I waded the water almost up to my waist and somehow managed to jump into the boat, before I got control of the sail and the tiller though, I had blown inward towards the main beach again, and had very little room for manoeuver this close to the beach. Of course I stranded again.
One of the instructors was now helping my class mates take the sails of their boats down, then tying them up to his motor bows to tow them back. I started doing the same with my boat, when a guy came running towards me, saying he was gonna help. I told him, no, that I was taking the sail down because it was too windy. "No, no, just get in the boat and I'll push you off and you'll catch wind", he said. I was a little suspicious. "Hey, I don't think so. It's way too windy, I'm just struggling to keep the sail from blowing off the boat." "Listen to me, I'm a sailing instructor. I do this for a living", he said, as he pulled the boom out of my hands. "Come on, are you scared?" "Well, yeah! But, as you like", I half heartedly said as I moved to the other side of the boat. As I reached for the rudder inside the boat, I got suddenly hit on my head by the boom. That hurt! That stupid imbecile of a "sailing instructor" had dropped the boom without so much as giving me a warning. I was angry now. "This is not gonna work", I said. "If you really wanta help, then help me take down that sail, now!" "Niah, niah, niah ... ", he mumbled, but he came over and reached for the boom with me. "What is this?", he then said, "this is all different, I don't know how to do this", as he reached for the boom-vang. "Well, get out of my way, then", I said, ready to drop all manners now. He quickly did. As he strided past me, I could suddenly smell the alcohol on his breath. Goodbye, mister know-it-all ...
Thankfully, there was now an instructor in sight. I pulled my boat over to her and she took my sail, packed it up in her motorboat and brought me and my dinghy to dock. I was one of the last people to be towed in, but I learned that I probably got to spend more time in my boat than most of them. "One and a half minutes, is how long I spent in the boat today", one of the older women said. Well, at least I tried to launch the boat again, which was more than most of them did. The instructors said it had been a lost battle from the start, due to the weather conditions. "The worst we've had all summer", they said. They promised next time would be better.
Next time was yesterday, sunday, and it was much better. We learned more about the wind, how to get out of irons, the beat, the close reach, the beam reach and the broad reach. The wind was much calmer, yet ample, and we got some good sailing done. Tacked and jibed and sailed in a triangle, great fun! I even got comfortable sailing in such a tight crowd, but there were 19 of us on only a small patch of water, between the tree flags they had positioned for us. Everything went well, except for a couple of people that cap sized again and a guy who lost his rudder and drifted way out until the instructors realized and went to get him!
I was all excited about my sailing as I biked home to meet up with C. We biked together to the little Olive Café for brunch, then spent the afternoon on the beach. I finished up one more pocket book, Dearest Poona by Karin Fossum, or Calling Out For You, as it's called in english. I don't know if it's because I have been out of reading novels for such a long time, but I get really worked up about every book I read now, and this one was no exception. I felt so for the protagonist and his poor indian bride that I was close to tears many times.
No comments:
Post a Comment