Good Morning Racers,
So, here’s a post Sailing on Sunday question for
you: Is it possible for your Race Captain to get egg on his face twice
in the same two hour period of Sailing on Sunday? I’ll answer for you, yeah,
pretty easy.
In our case, the first egg was sailing around during
the entire pre-start with a fender over the side. You’d think with a 20 foot
boat one would easily see the fender tag line attached to a shroud. Apparently
not. I could blame having to talk our substitute driver through all our lines
and such or that my attention was distracted in attempting to put on foulie
bottoms that I bought 5 years ago that now are a squeeze given the most recent
8 lbs of extra beer I’m carrying around my midsection, but alas neither would
really excuse the gross style points we lost with that little bumper bumping
along beside us. OOPS!! (Thanks go to Rick Perry for legitimizing it.) A dear
racing friend (cough, cough) sent me a text after the race to inquire if we
sailed the WHOLE RACE with the fender over the side. All I have to say to him
is that turnabout is fair play. His day will come.
The second one was a combination of inattention,
hubris, and unusually bad, quick judgment. Being the turtle in the SOS fleet,
we were approaching the leeward mark (wing dam) bringing up the way-back boats.
We didn’t pay much attention to the course announcements at the beginning of
the race (see above: substitute driver, fat midsection, etc.) or where the lead
boats had turned, and as we got up near the 42nd street ramp, the onboard two
stooges convinced ourselves that the rounding wing dam was the second one up
river. See, these two stooges have only been sailing a combined 60 years on
this river. Apparently that’s not enough time to memorize the courses and mark
locations and know the difference between "airport" and "upper
airport." Slow learners, we are.
As we passed wing dam 1 headed to wing dam 2, Stooge
1, “Those two boats turned early.” Stooge 2, “Yeah, they need to go to the next
wing dam.” Stooge 1, “Well…” Quick hands Stooge 2 on the radio, “Race
Committee, two boats turned early.” Stooge 1, “Huh?…” Merit 25 OB1 (on the
radio politely and in the corinthian spirit), “You are headed to the wrong wing
dam.” Stooge 1, “Where is that race chart? Here it is…..oh, uh, Oops. Get the
kite down and turn around!” Stooge 2, “Race Committee, never mind.” See, too
easy coach, too easy. A two egg omelet of embarrassment, so to speak.
Well, the good news is that we weren’t stuck in the
mud to get out of McCuddy’s, which also meant that boats coming out of the
slough could get out easily, and we didn’t get hit by lightening. (Substitute
driver, Quinn, “What happens if lightening hits the boat?” Stooges, “We don’t
know, but sail closer to that boat with the taller mast.”)
It actually was a wonderful day. Wind, calm, rain,
sunshine, cool, warm…it hit all the notes. Plus, it was the first day of being
on a Cal 20 for the Mighty Quinn Flanigan, who drove from the second we left
the dock until we tied up at the end. A smile never left his face. He was
pumped and did a great job. Helped us old curmudgeons be reminded of why we do
all this sailing stuff and how, under the right conditions, a couple of eggs
can actually make a soufflé. Yum.
Finally, a true shout out to OB1 for being so
professional and courteous about the whole wing dam incident. From my
perspective, it's how all mistakes should be handled on SOS, politely,
courteously, in the corinthian spirit, and by doing your turns. Good on
ya!
See you on the river.
Denny
Race Captain
