So I learned how to sail about two months ago. Nothing fancy; just a Sunfish. The smallest sailboat there is. My sister and I saw an ad for lessons on one of the days I was forcing her to take the 3-mile trek around Lake Johnson. This was before I realized that I had somehow lost my jacket (including my cell phone that was in the pocket) somewhere along the trail and had to do the loop all over again only to find that someone had turned it in to the office not 50 feet from where I had first discovered my misfortune.
Anyway, Laurie and I signed up for these sailing lessons through Raleigh Parks and Rec. It was pretty much a private lesson, seeing as how there were only four people in the class. We learned how to tie knots and come about from a 70-something firecracker named Margaret, who taught us weeks of information in two 3-hour classes and threatened to spank us if we got it wrong. She was awesome!Unfortunately, our lessons were cut short both days by opposing weather issues. The first day there was a storm coming. We had the boats out for maybe 10 minutes maneuvering through gust of wind and instant direction changes. Three days later (during our second class) there was no wind at all. We had to paddle back to the shore. But one day's trash is another day's treasure. Margaret said we could come another day when the weather was right and use them for free. "Don't tell them I said an hour," she said. "You might want to be out there all afternoon."
So life happens and yesterday, my birthday, we decided to use our free-day-cuz-Margaret-said. We filled out the necessary paperwork, left an ID and the deposit, and figured we were on our way. Arriving on the "beach", which is just a plot of sand on the edge of the man-made lake, we discovered the full extent of the knowledge that had escaped us since our brief lessons nearly two months ago. Of course there was an employee supervising to ensure our safety, but I think he was getting a kick out of how incompetent we were.
We fumbled through raising the sail and pushing it off shore into the water, climbing in and trying to catch some wind. Mr. Lake Johnson just stood there watching. Offering no help. Because we didn't ask, or because we were entertaining him, I don't know. We'll just give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was letting us do it ourselves for the sake of our pride. After several attempts to paddle out, catch wind and steer, I realized that I hadn't put the rudder down, and that the dagger board was scraping the sand. I got out, fixed the issues, and for good measure, pushed the boat out into deeper waters.
At this point, you're probably thinking: After all that work, Stace, surely you had an amusing time on the high seas. Amusing, yes. Productive, no. Much like our second day of lessons, there was barely any wind. It would pick up and take us skirting across the lake, clicking as we broke through the tiny ripples on the surface, and then suddenly not exist. The wind literally taken from our sail, leaving the sheet too loose and the boom (the horizontal pole at the bottom of the sail) swinging from side to side. On a larger boat, the boom swinging wouldn't be as hazardous as it was on the Sunfish. This boat is about 3 1/2 feet wide. We were ducking for our lives.
An hour and a half, peppered with moments of speed where I declared for the passengers of a peddle boat halfway across "We're sailors!", brought us to the most exciting event of the excursion. We had determined to head for shore and pick up lunch, as it was hot dog day at Snoopy's around the corner from my house. With the wind dead, Laurie was paddling like a maniac while I steered us toward the beach. Out. of. nowhere! this gust of wind fills the sail. Because I wasn't expecting it, I was holding the sheet too close, causing this gust to give a LOT of power. So much so that we nearly capsized. When I say nearly, I don't mean that we tipped a little and righted ourselves with ease. I mean Laurie's toukas was in the water and we were both leaning as hard as we could to the Starboard side for several seconds. My confidence was momentarily shot, a string of not-so-sweet words pouring out before we landed back flat.
"Your seat is going to be wet on the ride home," she said. "Feel my pants." They were soaked from riding the waves. It was a really close call...ok the truth is, I'm being a little dramatic. But I think it's well deserved considering Laurie was still suffering from an ear infection she got last week and the water at Lake Johnson is so murky, you can't even see two inches deep.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, we made it back to shore, waded through the various forms of debris floating in the shallows, and docked the boat. The good news is that we let the sail down more efficiently than we had put it up. All in all, I enjoyed my day on the boat and am considering myself ready to take passengers...one at a time of course. Any takers?
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." -The Wind in the Willows
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