Several Steps Forward & One Giant Step Back

Boats we’re learning on.

A few nights ago I had a horrible nightmare. The horrible nightmare was that we missed a class! Doesn't sound bad to most people but it was a pretty bad dream to me. I guess it shows how much I've fallen in love with sailing. Ha!

Today though I kind of experienced a real life nightmare. We were coming downwind in the harbor channel. I was the skipper & I had the boat to far over to the right & therefore pretty close to the docked boats. The instructor told me that I needed to get into the center of the channel in which I tried to respond by moving the tiller extension slightly to get the boat over. He kept saying that I was still too far to the right but the wind was powerful & the boat didn't want to go to the left. So I made a sudden pull of the tiller to veer away from the boats & the wind was so powerful it pulled the boom straight out over the starboard, I fell, lost control of the boat & the boom scraped against the huge O'neil catamaran, beloved by all in the harbor.

My husband, Matt, yelled at me briefly as we collided with the boat. I sat up & was able to regain control & veer away. However, there is about a 20' long mark on the side of the very expensive catamaran. Our instructor was actually pretty cool about it. But Matt & I were both quiet all the way back to the dock.

When we got off the boat & started leaving the dock Matt asked our instructor what the process was after hitting a million dollar boat. He told us that he talked to the crew that was on the catamaran & said they were fairly calm but would assess the damage & get back to us. Praying that it's just a marking & not an actually scratch. I don't think I dented the boat but we'll see. It took a lot not to start bawling my eyes out on the way home. Matt was comforting as I was holding back the sniffles.

I feel like a pretty big failure today. I was doing so well until then. I guess at least no one was hurt but it was an expensive mistake. So glad we aren't broke. Hard to not beat myself up though.

Yesterday we were outside of the harbor & it was wonderful, as there was nothing to hit. It's been my biggest fear since starting the class. Then today we had to practice again in the harbor because it was our first time using the jib. The jib is the sail that you see in front of the boat & it helps give the boat more power. A LOT more power. It was harder to control the boat going downwind. So I learned my lesson that I need to stay in the center of the harbor channel when going downwind. Bigger boats have a motor on them, allowing them to be more in control & so they don't have to sail the channel. I'm sure there are other problems with bigger boats but I can't wait to at least move up to a keel boat with a motor on it for these type of situations.

So who knows if I'll have another type of nightmare tonight? Ugghhh! I guess sailing is not all fun & rainbows. There will always be less than ideal days. Just hoping those won't be costly.