1/29/11 RACING

by Pam

Yeah, it was sort of like that ...

Plenty of sunshine, temperatures in the mid 70s, a good breeze and a touch of chaos. Where do I begin?

Actually it began Friday. The chaos, I mean. Every time I turned around, there was another accident. Major one on the highway on the way to a meeting, I was rear-ended and narrowly missed another accident a short while later. Doug came to pick me up and a lady was being loaded onto a stretcher from an accident just as he pulled into my work and about five minutes before that a lady at work had taken a header down the stairs and appeared to have broken her leg. Utter chaos. Doug was supposed to drive down to Austin this weekend to hang out with my brother and his family but after all the weirdness, we decided against him making the trip.

On the way to the lake on Saturday, we passed two accidents which sealed the deal on not making the trip. We had a smallish turnout with just 8 boats. It was too pretty to have missed sailing on this day so I have to wonder what unexpected things kept people away. The racing was interesting enough but something was off. I was sailing double-handed with Doug and we were actually in the hunt. That just isn’t right. We were heavy and in a fleet boat that was taking on water. How is that possible?

In the first race we were hot on Sandy’s tail on the run with Doug coaching me to stay on his wind. We’d get about a foot from him and then bear off. It was like playing chicken with his stern. Eventually, 6 inches from his sterm, I flinched, bore off too hard and dropped the tiller and Sandy got away. We took second with Burton close behind. Doug is a good tactician and said people were making very tiny mistakes but it still doesn’t explain why we were competitive. I’m not convinced he’s that good and I’m fairly certain I’m not. A fluke I concluded.

Race two, we were in the hunt again. This time Burton jumped out and took first with Sandy just a little in front of us. Again, didn’t really make sense. So, I decided to try an experiment and pass Doug to Lukas. In third race, I was minus my tactician and crew. Things got sloppy on my boat but Lukas moved up and even passed me at one point. As I rounded the reaching mark, Burton, Sandy and Bruce were stretched out in front of me and Lukas and Doug were a little behind but unable to really be competitive and it felt like the universe had restored order again. That felt right. Then at the top mark, Roger goes over. Now Roger has only taken a swim about 3 times in 70 years. Unprecedented! Chaos was back. Soon I moved a little closer to the lead pack and finished close behind Bruce in fourth. I’m not sure if Sandy or Burton won the last race. I was focusing on Roger who had remained in the water during most of the downwind leg and whose boat was still being rescued when we finished. We played pass the Doug again and had Doug sail Roger’s boat back to the docks.

You’d think that was the end of the day, but no. The real excitement for the day was just beginning and Doug had yet another boat to rescue as well as a three year old child. You know, sunshine, warm temperatures, a good breeze and a little chaos … a young father and his three year old daughter found themselves in a sailboat that was a bit much to handle in the breeze and the water was unexpectedly cold. We weren’t giving much thought to the young man struggling in the breeze (a little struggling builds character) but the whole club sprang into action when we realized there was a child on board. Thanks Miles, Bruce, Doug, Megan, Lukas and everyone else for scrambling to take care of little Sydney. She was all warmed up, had stopped shivering and had eaten my lunch by the time we’d finished helping her father de-rig and was safely being cared for by her grandmother when we left. Oh, and Roger, that tough old bird, is fine as well. Said he was wearing a different life jacket from his norm and the mainsheet grabbed his jacket on a gybe.

They say Saturn went into retrograde this week … meaning it’s a time for “re” activities. I don’t really follow the astrology stuff but it would appear that there might be some re-flection, re-evaluation and re-consideration going on this week. I’m re-flecting on my choice of spouse and have decided I’ll keep him forever and maybe he re-ally is that good.