Well, if you've been keeping score, you'll note that the boat and I are tied up. The boat won two rounds (once it simply dumped me unceremoniously into the water, once it had to bang me on the head to get me into the water), and I won two rounds (stayed in the boat and didn't get wet). Monday night was the last of my sailing lessons for this year, so we have a final score.
I guess I won't keep you in suspense for too long. Unfortunately sailing wasn't really very good on Monday. It rained in the morning, but by the time I got to Hoover Yacht Club the winds were minimal, at best. We rigged the boats and sailed, but our best speed was excruciatingly slow. After sailing for about an hour -- perhaps less -- I was ready to go in.
Suzanne and I were paired again, and we never came close to capsizing the boat. I never came close to getting hit by the boom or falling in the lake. In fact, the wind, almost nonexistent to begin with, tapered off as we sailed. At 8:13 they called us back to the dock, and when we were about 30 feet from the dock the wind essentially quit. Oh, we were moving -- at about one foot per minute. Fifteen minutes later Jamie, an instructor, told us to scull -- rapidly move the rudder back and forth -- our way in. So we essentially rowed the last fifteen or twenty feet.
Sigh.
We docked, and the boat's last chance at me came when I tried to step up onto the dock. The boat slid away from the dock to dump me into the water. It was a valiant effort, but with a quick move on my part and a quick pull on the dock line by Joe, I didn't go in.
Final score: Boat: 2, Sean: 3
We retired to the club house where some had brought beer and some had brought wine and had a few sips here and there.
It was a close match, but the boat will have to wait 'till next summer and the advanced course for a rematch.