Collegiate sailing

Is a hell of a lot harder than it looks!  Let me begin by clarifying a few things, 1) I'm a cruiser.  I was introduced to sailing by a cruiser.  All of the sailing that I have done over the past two years has been slow, relaxed, and cruiser friendly.  I was taking my time figuring sailing out for myself, at my own pace, by making mistakes and working through them; it was working for me.  2) The closest to racing sailboats that I've ever come is sailing the J/24, which is a racing boat, last year.  I was also once taken on as crew on a friend's boat for a Wednesday night race at my yacht club back home - we were rained out.  I also raced rowing shells for three semester during freshman and sophomore year.

Having confirmed the above facts about both my previous experience and my, suddenly apparent, inexperience allow me to give you a brief recap of my first week on the team which consisted of sailing from 3:30 to dusk (approximately 5:30-6:00) Tuesday and today.

Day 1:

I only knew my friend Emily and her friend Matt, who I had met once at Starbucks.  I carpooled down with Emily, Matt, Meredith, and Kim.  I got dropped off at the Waterfront for practice with the other girls, and Emily and Matt left for the St. Pete yacht club sailing center (where I sail the Ideal 18) to sail sloops (23 foot Sonars).  The coach didn't remember her conversation that Emily had with her about me.  I got put on a Flying Junior (13 ft LOA and 5 ft beam) as crew for Diana who is a new skipper.  We barely had enough wind to get out of the harbor, and then it picked up when we passed the end of the runway at the airport that marks the entrance to the bay.  I almost wet my pants, mostly out of excitement and a little from fear, the first time that I hiked out (when you hang your butt and torso out over the high side of the boat to keep from capsizing), but within a few minutes I was loving it!  Diana and I were hiking out on a puff and almost capsized when the puff disappeared and left us hiking out and therefore throwing the boat off balance.  Diana made it back into the boat in time - I decided to sit in the bay.  Halfway through practice the coach took me out of the FJ and dropped me off on the Sonar.  She thought that "I sail the J" meant "I race the J and know how to fly a spinnaker" (the really big, colorful sail), and I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I had it partially figured out by the end of practice.  I ended up at the yacht club, and rode home with wet pants.  I had fun, in a scary kind of way and got really confused, but I survived.

Day 2:

I woke up feeling like my limbs were snapped rubber bands and feeling as though an elephant had slept on my back all night.  I survived class, and when it came time to meet my ride I actually knew people, and the coach was expecting me when I arrived, which is always good.  I crewed for Emily, also a new skipper, and our rudder kept coming out of the water no matter what we did to it or how many times we did it.  Due to rudder difficulties we missed the two races that our coach ran, but we did manage to sail into the middle of the fleet, overtake everyone, round the windward mark in the lead, and then sail back out of the fleet only to head up and fix the damn rudder for the tenth time.  I was then traded out of the boat so that Emily could crew for a different skipper.  While in the coach's boat I got to know another novice.  She then got put into a boat, and the coach asked me how much I knew about "the rules of the road" and racing.  I knew most of the rules and, at last, I was given a basic introduction to a racecourse and racing.  I was then put into Matt's boat and headed back to the dock as crew.  On the way back in he taught me how to roll tack, always fun.  I'm not good at it, but at least I know what it is.  I didn't sit in the bay, I didn't die, and I got to ride home with dry pants.  I'd call that an improvement.  I couldn't have asked for more.

On the whole, racing is a lot harder than cruising, and I never knew that anything could happen so fast on a sailboat.  It was a crazy couple of days, but I've managed to survive.  My first time to row in three years is coming up on Saturday, and I learned Tuesday that I am much more out of shape than I thought I was.  It's interesting, I'm always painfully reminded how out of shape I am, but when I'm in shape I'm never reminded of it.  Okay well I'm really tired, probably from sailing, which might explain my lack of details or sentence structure in this post, sorry.  I'm off to bed now, but I'll update again soon with stories from the bow seat of an eight man rowing shell and more details about sailing.  Until then I'll be enjoying my sailboat dreams.

Big day!

I talked to my friend Emily tonight after our statistics class and sailing is a go tomorrow.  Last Thursday she apparently told the coach that I'd be coming tomorrow, so that's good.  I'm meeting Emily and the rest of the team outside of the athletic center on campus at 2:15 to carpool down to St. Pete.  Practice begins at three and goes until dusk.  Emily won't be sailing out of Bayboro Harbor tomorrow with the rest of the team because she might be in a race on the J/24 this weekend and the coach has sent her and a few others to learn how to fly a spinnaker on a Sonar at the St. Pete Yacht Club sailing center (where I sail the Ideal 18 and Rhodes 19).  The J/24 that she might be racing is the same one that I sail at the Waterfront.  So, I'll be on my own tomorrow, but I'll have time on the ride down to meet people and figure out what I'm getting myself into.  

With close to 12 knots of wind and temperatures in the mid to upper 70's it's looking like we'll have perfect sailing weather tomorrow.  I have my gear and the coach knows that I'm coming - all that's left now is to show up.  As Woody Allen once said, "Seventy percent of success in life is showing up."  That theory worked for me three years ago when I became a rower.  I'm hoping that it holds true now.  I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but that's okay; I'm just glad I have the chance to find out.  Tomorrow, I become a collegiate sailor.  Wish me luck!

Home again, gone again

The Waterfront, where I sail in St. Pete, likes to take their cruising boats on short three day cruises out into the Gulf of Mexico every few months.  I was fortunate enough last May to go with them on one of their little outings, and I was elated to notice last week while poking around on their website that they have two more coming up this month.  I can't go on the first one this coming weekend because I already have plans to go rowing on Saturday, (more about that later), but when I saw the dates for the second trip, November 21-23 I emailed Zac, the coordinator, and asked if there were any openings left.  He said that there were a few, and I called the Waterfront.  An hour later I had the best thing in the world to look forward to - three days and two nights on a sailboat and another chance to sail beyond the Skyway.

I asked for the time off at work yesterday, but one of my bosses was quick to notice that corporate had made that weekend a blackout weekend; when corporate takes what they think will be a busy time and use it as an excuse to not allow anyone to take time off.  I asked my boss what to do, and he said to tell the general manager that I had a family function that I couldn't miss.  He said that should work, and if it doesn't then I'll quit - I've been meaning to do that anyways.  For me, this three day sail is a rare and exciting opportunity that will disappear in a year when I graduate and I have no intentions of missing it for such a miserable job.  It's one of those "beg forgiveness, not permission" kind of things, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Between joining the sailing team, finding Masthead Enterprises on Thursday, signing up for this cruise, and getting back into rowing on Saturday, this has been a busy week.  I'm not sure what all I'm getting myself into here, but I know that's it's things that I love and have a passion for, which I guess is better than most people can say.  I'm just glad to be given the opportunities to fulfill the dreams that I moved here for.  My friends, family, and coordinator at UTC can easily give you a thousand reasons why I left Tennessee and moved to Florida, but the real reason can be summed up in one word, sailing.  It's part of the reason that I first came to the bay area almost twenty years ago, it's why I've always wanted to return, and it's what has given me my friends and life here.  I owe it everything, and in a few weeks I'll get a chance to come full circle and return the favor to the other sailors on the cruise who, as I learned last time, will be struggling to find their beginning in sailing as I did for so long.  I will be able to teach them the basics, share a few tricks, and hopefully pass along to them some of the love and passion for sailing that was once passed on to me.  That's the best thing about sailing, it's livelihood is in the sharing of it, and sailors are eager to share what they love.  It's taken me a lifetime to become a semi-established sailor, but with the help of a lot of good people, I have.  It's time to return the favor.