A sailor's Journal: Playing with the Big Boys

Departure: 8:00am
Return: 1:00pm
Weather conditions: foggy then clearing
Tide: High/Low
Boat: 40' CNC
Crew: 7 (Ron, Connie, Dan, Marvin, Chris, Lisa & Woody)

The weather ahead looks ominous

Just for the record, it is now January 2008, and quite a bit of time has passed since the next few entries happened. I've been reticent to sit down and write for some reason. Anyway, I'm back, and I need to catch up. As usual, I claim this will be a short entry, but make not promises.

I was introduced to Ron and Connie by an acquaintance from the Gig Harbor Sailing Club (Steve). Steve is what I'd call an honorary instructor or manager or owner - something like that. He shows up at odd times and teaches a class here and there or does some racing with the club. It was during one such race that we got to know each other and he said he'd hook me up with the Holbrooks.

Scary visibility

Ron and Connie Holbrook own, and race, their own 40' CNC. They are very enthusiastic and very friendly and welcoming. True to his promise, Steve did tell them about me, and they were kind enough to contact me and invite me to join them for a race. How could I say no?

Probably the most gloomy weather I've ever sailed in. Very ominous.

Two nameless individuals (to me) prepare for the race.

The fog lifts a little as the race begins.

The morning of the race broke gray and somber with no wind, and I left the house anxious that they wouldn't cancel. I did and felt the usual excited thing; I left the house way to early, packed everything I could think of and used the restroom about a hundred times (okay, maybe you didn't need to know that). I want to get to the race, so lets skip ahead past the waiting, past the gloomy morning, past the wondering if I was waiting at the right marina, past the friendly introductions, and past the non-eventful departure. We were off.

One can never capture the thrill of heeling in a photo.

The morning had gone from gray to foggy. I have to confess something very foolish; I've always wanted to see what it's like on a boat in the fog. It was cool! Of course, it's more dangerous to be on the water in the fog. Not all boats have radar, and not all sailors are careful and so it's much more easy to strike an object in the water, lose one's bearings, or crash into another boat in the fog. Nevertheless, it was quite pretty.

The main concern was whether the race would be canceled, but I needn't have worried. Sailing may be an outward expression of some sort of insanity because there were about 12 of us congregated at Brown's point to race. Clearly, it wasn't cancelled.

The race was a lot of fun. The start snuck up on me. I didn't realize we'd started until about 5 minutes after the start. We started by flying the spinnaker which is the large, colorful, balloon-sized sail one usually see's in pictures of sailboats. This was a learning experience for me as I'd never flown a spinnaker. It about 5 of us to manage it. There were a couple of times that I screwed up, but I started getting the hang of it after a while.

A beautiful start to the second leg of the race.

The race course was to start at Brown's point, circle a buoy off the mouth of Gig Harbor, then circle another buoy off Dash point and then finish back at Brown's point. We used the spinnaker all the way to Gig Harbor, then switched to Jib from Gig Harbor, and finally back to Spinnaker at the end.

Back at the starting point- Browns point. Is it really the same place?

The fog cleared after a while and the sun even peeped out a couple of times. The wind kicked up for the first leg, almost completely died in the middle of the second and then picked up again during the third.