Sailing Again on my Own

To catch up, we rented a boat two times this weekend, and sailed around the bay. If I may say so myself, I think I'm getting better at it. The wind was moderate, and it wasn't terribly crowded on the bay although there was a fair number of sailboats out. I met both Oskar and José, from my sailing class. They were each taking a Hobie Cat out. José said they were so much more fun than the Holder's. I don't know, the catamarins look kinda scary to me, they go so fast and they heel so much. But J said they were actually easier to sail, more stable but more responsive. I guess I might try to take a Hobie Cat class later this fall, if I manage to do more sailing in the meantime.

I'm getting much better at using the extension to control the tiller. (That's kind of fundamental for sailing the catamarins, because you have to lean out of them so much ...) I had one accidental jibe on Sunday, when sailing wing-on-wing. I think it was due to a gust, but I was actually quite confused about what happened. I must learn to be better prepared for this type of situation and better control the boat at all times. I also almost ran into a boat twice (and it was the same boat each time, but in completely different parts of the bay!). In both cases I had the right of way; the first time the other skipper visibly didn't see me, the second time I didn't see him because he appeared suddenly from behind us. But right-of-way is not the most important, but to be able to avoid collisions! So, it's good experience to do some sailing on the bay when it is fairly crowded with boats.