Water and Sky 1

I have tried some exciting things in the past week. One involves water, the other sky. And both are the things I love.

Last weekend, I took a class on small boat sailing. That has been my dream since teenager. I went to one class almost 20 years ago while I was still in HK. But an approaching typhoon forced the class to cancel (which I think is a good idea). Then I forgot about this for a long time until about 4-5 years ago. But every year, I failed to remember to register for a class until the summer was over, till this year.

The boat that I learned to sail is called a Sunfish, which is highly popular for 1-2 persons. It's very easy to set up and control. And it can bring you a lot of thrills when the wind is strong. The class lasted for 2 days over a weekend from 10 am to 5 pm. We had about 4-5 hrs of dry time learning everything from knot tying, aerodynamics, sailing techniques, safety and boat setup. We actually only touched on the very basics. In the sailing world, there are so many terminologies, skills and boat types that literally is another world. I feel I am back to the school: the more I know, the more I don't know. So it was confusing a little bit in the beginning, then became clear later when I sail by myself, but was back to confusion again when I was part of the crew sailing a bigger boat.

The learning curve was leveled a bit by an enthusiastic, positive and always smiling instructor, Doug. He won an award on teaching sailing. A great guy. The weather was perfect too: sunny, dry, temperature in the 80's (high 20's Celsius), with 5-10 mph wind speed - perfect for beginners. I managed to control the boat pretty well by myself, doing different turns and stuff. But the highlight was the capsize.

We are not require to capsize our boat, but the instructor highly recommended it since it will happen 1 day. Not wanting to get myself wet, I waited until almost the end of the 2nd day to do it. To be honest, fear was a big factor too, even though I had life jacket on and I can swim. I guess I was afraid that I couldn't turn the boat around or got up to the boat or something. So when the wind seemed to die down a bit, I thought I would be able to escape. But at the end, a sudden gust filled the sail, sped up the boat, and I decided to do it.

I hanged on to the sail, the sail became heavier because the wind is pushing it harder. At the same time, the boat started tilting...10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30, 45, as it went aster and faster. I don't know when but it must be around 50+ degree, I leaned forward, pushed the sail a little bit, and slided down into the water. Here I was, a big splash!

I didn't anticipate the boat went totally upside down (turtled up). So I pulled the daggerboard (in the middle of the boat) with quite a bit of strength (because of some resistance of the sail under the water). The boat turned 90 degree. Then I stepped on the daggerboard and pulled the side of the boat again and set it upright. After pulling myself up onto the boat, I was both relieved and proud - I did it!

But one thing amazes me, everything in the boat (not a whole lot), the oar, the bucket and sponge, remained in the original position. Non of them were tied to the boat, which I expected to swim around to retrieve them. I guess it's related to the design of the boat.

I want to sail a good size boat 1 day. And I hope to share the time with my family and teach my sons to do sail. One of the romantic evenings I dream of would be to bring Jeanie out on a good sail boat and sail out from the Bay of San Francisco. Lying down on the deck, sharing a meal together, and enjoy everything from the cool breeze, to the sunset, to the beautiful city skyline, and of course, our time together.

-RL-