Sailing

Sep. 6th, 2004 10:19 am
azziria: (sailors)
[personal profile] azziria
The floor's still not exactly stable, which is mildly entertaining. Obviously it doesn't take me long to get my sea legs.

Sailing this weekend was utterly brilliant, and I've learned so much (including just how much I still need to learn). There were four of us (two experienced, two trainees) on a 32-foot sloop, just messing about in boats. I can now bring a yacht neatly alongside the dock, even if it's into a space between two other boats. I can manoeuver around in harbour, including turning through 180 degrees within the boat's own length. I can pick up a mooring buoy. I can retrieve a man overboard (OK, a bucket-tied-to-a-fender overboard, but the principle is the same!) when under power (under sail is far, far more difficult - that's what our 'instructors' were practising). I can put the sails up and reef the main. I know the basics of how to tack and how to gybe. I know what the boat feels like sailing with the wind from different points. I know how to back the sails to come to a halt.

But best of all, absolutely best of all, I know how it feels when the boat tightens up as she comes up into the wind, sailing close hauled and heeled sharply over in a fresh breeze, pulling against you to bring her head further into the wind so that you have to brace yourself against the wheel to keep her course steady, with the deck heaving under your feet and the spray in your face.

Awesome. I'm hooked.

Date: 2004-09-06 03:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ihlanya.livejournal.com
JEEEZ.

I've never really considered sailing (phobic about deep water) but the way you describe it is absolutely amazing. It really makes me want to rush out right this minute and try it.

Date: 2004-09-06 05:30 am (UTC)
lj_stowaway: (dreaming)
From: [personal profile] lj_stowaway
OK, now I have gooseflesh.

I am such a bad a sailor that standing on shore watching tiny whitecaps on a LAKE makes me queasy. Walking on a floating dock makes me go green and shaky.

And yet, now I want to go sailing. Your gift for description..... just, wow.

Thank you!

Date: 2004-09-06 05:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] linaelyn.livejournal.com
(second try -- bad typos in the first.)

OMG SQUEEEEEEEE!!!

Hooked well and truly, yes. Me too.

But best of all, absolutely best of all, I know how it feels when the boat tightens up as she comes up into the wind, sailing close hauled and heeled sharply over in a fresh breeze, pulling against you to bring her head further into the wind so that you have to brace yourself agains the wheel to keep her course steady, with the deck heaving under your feet and the spray in your face.

Yes. Yes. YES.

Thanks for the perfect description of it. I also love the sensation of jibing, when you bring her through the wind and the boom swings round in a gust of power, and the pull of the sea keeps you in brisk motion over the waves.

I did that "bring the boat to a halt" thing... but it was a failed attempt at coming about. :-D Good practice for when I needed to do it again, to hand the tiller over to Estel.

Date: 2004-09-06 06:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eremite.livejournal.com
... I know how it feels when the boat tightens up as she comes up into the wind, sailing close hauled and heeled sharply over in a fresh breeze, pulling against you to bring her head further into the wind so that you have to brace yourself agains the wheel to keep her course steady, with the deck heaving under your feet and the spray in your face

That's beautiful, it really is. Thank you reminding me of the smell o' the sea :D

*sighs and thinks of Scotland*

Date: 2004-09-06 11:05 am (UTC)
claidheamhmor: (Default)
From: [personal profile] claidheamhmor
You should have been born a pirate!

Date: 2004-09-07 10:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aguynamedrick.livejournal.com
I'd like to spend some time sailing. What little I've done, I've enjoyed.

When I was on vacation, I got to see a friend from high school. Her husband manages a marina. They have three boats. Two tugs that they have rebuilt and a sail boat they built from his design. They've sailed it from the Great Lakes (between the US and Canada) to to the Atlantic Ocean.

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