And then she said "You're bleeding again..."
I woke up to rain Monday morning, and as the day progressed and I spent more time running around in my car than I actually expected, the rain continued, contrary to weather reports of it slacking off by noon and blue skies appearing. At 2:00 it was raining and I was beginning to think about what I might do if classes were canceled. At 4:30 I looked outside, and while it wasn't raining, the sky was still clouded over. I guessed that classes would be held, and upon arriving at the yacht club, you could actually see some blue sky, and winds were very moderate.
Before sailing, we went over some rules of right of way. In truth, while these classes are a good introduction to sailing, they are really meant as a basis for learning to race. The rules of right of way we talked about were geared toward that, and not so much aimed at day sailing and sailing on the same waters as power boats. There were five main rules:
1) NO COLLISIONS
Well, that seemed reasonable. I didn't really want to ram another boat myself.
2) Avoid Capsized boats
Again, it seems pretty reasonable. Capsized boats means people are in the water. Wouldn't want to run them down. You might get a penalty point.
3) Starboard tack has the right of way over port tack.
A starboard tack is when the wind is coming over the starboard (right) side of the boat. A port tack when the wind is coming over the left. I haven't quite figured out why this is important, but I guess *somebody* has to have the right of way.
4) Windward has right of way over leeward.
This means the boat closest to the wind has the right of way over the boat further out. It didn't seem to make much difference until I thought about two boats racing toward a mark, then I began to see why it made sense. One situation might be that the leeward boat is somewhat ahead of the windward boat. If the leeward boat had the right of way, it could tack in front of and cut off the windward boat. Not very nice. Since it doesn't have the right of way, it has to make sure to be nice to the windward boat.
5) Tacking boat has right of way
...but only if none of the other rules are in effect.
So, our rules of right of way reviewed, we went out to sail to test them out. In the other beginner's class, they had five boats, and right of way night was evidentally pretty interesting. We had two.
While last week we sailed most of the way across the lake before tacking, this week they placed buoys pretty close together -- close enough that the time between tacks was normally only a couple of minutes. I was paired with Suzanne, whom I hadn't sailed with since lesson #2, the night I fell into the water.
Things went well. I remembered my lessons from last week and I didn't have any problem tacking around the buoys. I coached Suzanne a bit in trimming the jib, though I let the mains'l out a bit more than I could have to keep our speed low. To be honest, while I knew I could trust Joe, our instructor, to keep us from capsizing, I also knew I couldn't place that same kind of trust in Suzanne. Not that it had anything to do with her, heck I wouldn't have placed the same trust in anyone that hadn't been sailing as long or as much as Joe.
But as we made our little figure eights around the buoys, I gradually speeded us up and we were doing quite well. Then the wind calmed and Suzanne and I switched places.
I stayed in the center of the boat handling the jib sheet, and providing a counter balance when needed to keep the boat trimmed. Evidentally, she hadn't skippered much the week before, and she didn't have much experience in actually handling the tiller. It took her a bit, but after a few times around, she was doing quite well. She did have a tendency to let the mains'l out much too far, and we managed to hit the buoys a couple of times, and actually drag one once prompting questions from the peanut gallery (i.e. the rescue boat with Joe and Jamie) asking just where we were going with the buoy.
Somewhere in the middle of this, we switched to gibing, and eventually I took over the helm again. Suzanne and I were in the Coronado 15, the same boat I had been in the week before. I was determined to lap the other boat. No, I don't want to race, but, hey, the C15 is a faster boat than the FJ 14s. It shouldn't take much, right?
And it didn't not really. I steered closer courses than had been the norm of the evening, gibed more quickly than we had been, and in a few laps we pulled out in front, just in time to have the instructors tell us to head back to the dock.
On the way back they had us do a 360 -- turn the boat in a circle -- so they had time to pick up the buoys. That's not what they said, of course, it was simply good practice for us. It may have been good practice, but they did want to be at the dock before we got there, and doing that 360 certainly slowed us down. We pulled up to the dock and Joe grabbed the line. I didn't fall into the water getting out of the boat, but there were a few seconds there when that was in doubt.
We pulled out and derigging was quick and simple. Then back to the club house to work on knots.
Not a bad idea since I'd been asked to tie a bowline knot as we derigged and found I couldn't do it. But with a slight refresher I had it again, as well as the other knots we had been supposed to learn.
The last fifteen minutes we talked drinks (as in alcohol). What does that have to do with sailing, you ask? Not much, but a lot of the conversation did center around Captain Morgan's brand of rum. And I picked up a drink recipe that sounds nice: Pineapple juice + pineapple sherbert + Captain Morgan's Private Stock Spiced Rum to taste.
And thus ended the night. Only one more lesson to go.
What about that bleeding stuff? Well, it was mostly for suspense. There wasn't a lot of that in this lesson, so I thought I'd throw *something* in. All that happened was that I tore off a scab from some earlier session as I started crewing for Suzanne. Nothing spectacular, but it got your attention, didn't it? It was "again", because when I fell out of the boat the first night, I scratched my leg. Remember, I was paired with Suzanne that night as well. And stop hoping for the gory stuff.