SETTLING IN ... still more changes (part 61e)

I was really looking forward to the weekend and the racing. On Friday I only worked at the trailer park long enough to get the daily chores done, telling Ben that I had personal business to take care of. Of course he reminded me that I only got paid for the hours I worked as I signed out. There were to be four races over a three day period with only three counting. That was done so people who couldn’t get off from work on Friday still had a chance to win or get a prize. For those of us racing all three days we could ”drop“ our worst race.

It was a beautiful sunny day as Elle and I dropped the kids off at her mother’s and picked up the boat. Since the host club itself was located on an island we had to take a ferry over to it. When we got to the ferry slip I asked the deck hands for the times of the tide changes because it was very important to know when racing. As I asked I noticed something that was relatively strange about the wind. It was blowing from the Southeast. Normally wind from the Southeast meant stormy weather like we’d had just two weekends earlier, But there was bright sunshine, blue skies and only a few big white clouds. I could feel there was a good breeze and looked forward to a fun day of racing.

There were eleven different classes of sailboats racing and the larger ones started first and then worked down in size to the smaller ones. My class of boat (Comet) was the third one scheduled to start. The race officials always sent the bigger boats on a different course than the smaller ones and because there was a good amount of wind they decided to send us on to the ”long course“. In all the years I’d raced there I’d only sailed it once. Rather than use temporary bouys to mark the course they used the government markers that were permanently placed to show the main channel for large power boats. At the meeting before we left shore the race officials told us the wind was about 12 miles per hour, something that I felt Elle and I could handle. All in all I felt it was an easy course and felt comfortable even though it would be a longer distance than we normally sailed.

What I and the race officials had failed to realize was that the clubhouse and the harbor where we started from was in the ”lee“ of the island... the lee meaning that the waters were protected from the real wind. I had a good start and was leading when I reached the first government marker which was at the East end of the island. It was a rude awakening as I broke free of the protection that it had offered. Not only was the wind a factor but the waves were a lot bigger than we were used to seeing. With the wind blowing from the Southeast they were actually coming all the way in from the ocean with nothing much to break them up. We only sailed for a few minutes when Elle turned to me and asked if I was really going to continue. My father, who had taught me how to sail and race, had always impressed upon me to finish what I started. He had less of a problem if I chose not to go out (like two weekends before) than if I dropped out. I guess I’m using that as an excuse but I told her that we were going to go on and to try and finish.

It was brutal! The pounding from the waves and the spray that was put up actually hurt as it hit you. I knew exactly where the next marker was and as we rounded it I made a critical decision. If we were to follow the instructions of the race officials we should have rounded that mark and then headed straight back with the wind directly behind us. One thing I’d learned at an early age when sailing this class of boat was that a strong wind directly behind the boat combined with big waves was TROUBLE! To avoid what I felt was certain disaster I chose not to head back but kept on sailing the direction I’d been going in so that, after a while, I could head for the next marker with the wind coming across ”my quarter“. (Picture, if you will, a clock... with the wind directly behind us it would be blowing from six o’clock directly to twelve o’clock. With the wind coming across my quarter it would be blowing from about 4’oclock.) There was another government marker out there and I, arbitrarily, chose to head for it and then round it and head for the next official marker. As we sailed back (very, very fast I might add) I was amazed to see so many capsized sailboats. I’d really not paid attention to my competition with my focus on keeping my own boat upright and Elle somewhat calm. Seeing the carnage I became concerned for Buddy, Rex and Jimbo, my clubmates. There were two other sails way behind me from my class of boat but I couldn’t see the sail numbers or the color of their hulls. When we rounded the East end of the island it was more of the same... boats turned on their sides or sunken down to their decklines and even some with broken masts. When we crossed the finish line the gun went off signifying that we’d won. Normally, that would’ve elicited a display of excitement from me but, having seen all the boats in distress and looking at Elle who was almost in shock, I couldn’t muster any of it up.

Back at the dock where we hoisted the boats in and out with a mechanical winch there was little wait. Because of the large number of boats (about 30) who needed to use the one lift you could expect to wait almost an hour for your turn. As I pulled the boat up to the lifting area Buddy was there to help. Elle scampered up the ladder and Buddy jumped in the boat to help me bail it out before we tried to use the lift. I asked if he and Carol were OK and he laughed. He said that once Carol saw the waves at the end of the island it was all over and they headed back. He said that out of the ten or so Comets that started five turned around and came back in including Rex and Jimbo who, he said, had gone back home. I told him that I only saw two other Comets behind me as we were heading for the finish line. We both wondered who the missing sailors were.

It wasn’t until the boat was up and on the trailer and the sails were off that it really hit me. I guess the adrenaline wore off because, in spite of the temperature being in the 80’s I started shivering as if I were cold. My hands started burning and as I looked at them I saw they were almost raw from holding on to the main sheet (a line {rope} used to pull the sail in and out and that depended on the direction the boat was heading and where the wind was coming from.) I remember having to sit on the grass next to the boat for quite a while to compose myself. It was quite a while before I actually missed Elle. I was a bit embarrassed when I realized it. Carol had taken Elle into the ladies locker room and helped her get changed into dry clothes.

To be continued...