Now I know many of you sailers out there disagree. They use a sailboat to get somewhere, they control it, they understand it. Not me. I want to just go out there somewhere. I would have liked to learn how to control and understand it. It never happened. And after buying my first boat, that is exactly what I did or didn't do. First, I didn't get anywhere and sometimes it was fun. Sometimes is was exasperating. And sometimes it was necessary. For you see, you DO have to get back; and that is a destination.
I learned many things that 3 years I owned the boat. It was a used 1987 19 foot O'Day daysailer. Beautiful yellow and orange striped sails, centerboard, tiller, cuddy cabin. Now the cuddy cabin could be described as a closet. I only went down in it to retrieve things, like bug spray, life jackets, stuff, you know.
What did I learn or should I say NOT learn?
I know how to sail sideways-you forget to put the centerboard down.
I know how to sail backwards-you have the sails too tight and the wind coming right at you and lo and behold the boat goes backwards. Go figure.
I know how to flip a boat. I didn't flip this one, it is impossible I've been told. Yeah right, like airplanes can stay up in the air. But then I digress to another fear I have.
I know how to sail in circles. You just keep turning left, er port side. Or right, ahhh starboard. But, it gets rather boring when your circle is about 30 feet in diameter.
I know how to watch that piece of gauge that shows how much you are listing, or tilting, to one side. I kept it to within 5 degrees. Plenty listing for me. Plus, I was too busy watching that gauge that I forgot all about the "tell tails", and adjusting the sails; and the tiller.... So many things, so few eyes and hands and prayers.
Supposedly there is this technique called tacking. You use the wind to zigzag to get to a destination that you can't get to because of the wind, or something like that. I tried tacking a few times. The goal is to move forward. I just moved back and forth on the same path, back and forth, no forward motion. I think there is more to it than that, but I never figured it out.
Oh, I also know how to catch commercial crab pots-not on purpose mind you. My husband and I were sailing one day, actually moving in a positive direction, when the black crab pot in front of me never reappeared behind me and the boat sort of wasn't going very fast. I finally saw the pot dragging behind the boat, realizing that it was stuck on the centerboard. We somehow managed to grab and cut the rope retrieving the pot marker and the pot and dragged them on board. Afraid of being shot at we quickly ventured home using the 10 hp motor on high speed-ok, ok we cheated a little. Arriving home we released the jimmy crab used as bait inside the pot. What do you do with one crab. Then feeling guilty we decided that the right thing to do was to return the pot. Not wanting to leave it empty and only having a frozen fish head for bait we restocked the pot, tied the rope back together with some sort of amateur knot, (I hadn't gotten to the knot chapter in the 'Sailing for Dummies' book)and returned the pot to the general area we thought we hooked it. You know I would have loved to have seen the crabber's face when he retrieved his pot.
Well, three years later, after sailing in 20 knot winds a few times, white caps all around, not another idiot out there, crashing into shore a time or two, it hit me that this is not fun anymore. To those of you who continue to love it, and are good at it, I envy you, I admire you, and I toast you. From shore of course.
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