And I am hooked. Some of you know, and some of you may have heard from Michelle about my obsession with sailing. I don't remember when it started exactly, all I know is that it is always there.
I am a waterdog. Some of my fondest memories are all involving water, and of course some of my scariest memories also involve water. No matter the memory, scary or fond, they all have great stories to go along. Yesterday was no exception.
When Michelle and moved to the Bay Area for my job, I got all excited when I realized there was a sailing school about ten minutes from our apartment. I figured I would save my pennies and attend all the classes I could before the end of our "tour" in the Bay. But money has a way of slipping through my fingers rather quickly and soon we were planning to move back to Redding. So I turned my eyes towards smaller, lake-type, sailing vessels. Once again driving Michelle mad with my plans for yet another hobby. Sorry babe.
One day while I was working with one of my supervisors, he mentioned how he would rather be out on his boat on such a hot day. The mention of a boat immediately peaked my attention and I asked him what type of boat he had. "An older 34' sail boat". I explained my obsession of sailing to him and he shocked me again with the news that he was an instructor for a sailing school in Berkely for a long time. I offered my manual labor services and expressed my willingness to scrub the deck, scrape barnacles, and retrieve anchors released to the dirty depths of the bay... ok, maybe not the last one.
We made arrangements and I finally got to go for a sail on an honest to goodness sailboat. It was great. We motored out of the marina and onto the bay south of the San Mateo bridge. As we cruised along the windspeed starting picking up and soon we were in full on 30 knot winds. Sitting along the windward side, staring straight down into the water, I asked how fast of winds the races were usually held in. "15-20 knots" my supervisor replied, "actually right now we are sailing when most people won't, the small-craft advisory is at 25 knots". He glanced back over his shoulder with a border line maniacal grin as another five gallons of seawater sprayed over us. It was great.
I'm hooked, I want to sail more. I don't need a boat yet, but I would like to go get all my certificates so I can charter boats. I sense good adventures ahead!
- dg
