Today's sailing lesson was all about getting us novices out into the boat sans instructors. A very daunting prospect given that I have never managed to sail a boat using both the tiller and the main sheet. The past two lessons have seen me being 'crew' and managing (badly) the jib sheet, and manning (womaning) the tiller. I have found that I really like being in charge of the tiller as it gives me a much better feel for the boat. I guess that's why the helmsman controls the boat from there.
The first time out on the water today, Sarah and I jumped into the boat with Chris, our instructor. We were supposed to go out alone, but Chris was keen for a sail. I was put in charge of the tiller, Sarah managed the jib sheet and Chris the mainsheet. We had a great time tacking back and forth across the river.
The second time out Sarah and I again decided to go together and we added Kate into the mix. No instructor this time. As I had never used the mainsheet, I felt that Sarah would be the most experienced one, so I suggested that she go as helmsman and Kate and I would be crew working the jib sheet and balancing the boat.
Right from the get go things started to go awry. First step as we pulled away from shore was for Sarah to get the rudder down so that she could steer the boat. But the rudder wouldn't go down. As she fiddled with the tiller and rope, none of us were really paying too much attention to the sails. The wind did it's thing and shot us downwind ( I think the current was helping too) and we very quickly found ourselves heading full speed for the bridge. Derek was chasing us in the rescue boat, yelling out instructions and trying to get us back on course. Unfortunately, this was only going to end one way: with us capsizing. Sarah got her rudder down, turned the boat and it straight away became evident that we were going over....
The nice thing about capsizing is that you just kind of resign yourself to it. There's no sense of panic or impending doom, you just know the boat is going over, so you may as well abandon ship. Derek suggested that I stay on the mast side of the boat, while Sarah and Kate swam around to the centreboard. They were to stand on the centreboard and scoop me back into the boat. I had my doubts about this procedure working, but work it did. I slithered into the boat with relatively more grace than I expected. Then it was my job to steady the boat and get it under control. Given that we hadn't been under control at anytime during this entire episode, I also had my doubts about this as well. Oh ye of little faith. I scrambled, well actually I slipped and fell on my bum into the back of the boat and grabbed hold of the tiller. I would have then proceeded to get the boat 'under control' but although I had hold of the tiller, it was not actually connected to anything. Derek was telling me to steer the boat straight and I was waving the tiller stick around saying "I can't the stick's come off".
Meanwhile, I still had to get Sarah and Kate into the boat. I somehow managed to shove the tiller into it's housing and then set about assisting Sarah and Kate. Sarah, being young and lithe, pretty much slithered herself straight into the boat without any help. We both helped haul Kate aboard and then the three of us sat down and had a jolly good laugh. This was turning out to be a hoot. While we were finding the whole thing highly amusing, Derek was tying us to his rescue boat. Apparently, we were going to get towed back to shore. That was when we truly realised just how far we had come. I was glad that we didn't have to tack our way back from there, it would have taken us the rest of the day.
I found myself still in the helm and by holding the tiller and following the direction of the tow boat and holding the main sheet I was able to kid myself that I was actually sailing. When we got back to shore and were directed to stay in the boat, it seemed that our sailing adventure was not yet over. The men set to work bodgying up a repair on the tiller, while us girls rolled around the boat laughing about our experience.
With the repairs made, and me still in the helm, eeeek, we took off from shore again, this time making sure that the rudder was DOWN. With tiller in one hand and mainsheet in the other we were off and sailing. Yes, we were actually sailing. Derek kept a close eye on us from the rescue boat (I can't understand why) and gave us timely advice to keep us on a nice even keel. Kate worked the jib sheet with help from Sarah, and Sarah also helped me by holding the mainsheet while we tacked. We had our little system worked out really well and we tacked to and fro across the river many times. We didn't get up much speed but we were making progress and we were sailing, woohoo!. We even struck up a few bars of "we are sailing" such was the excitement and happiness of what we had managed to achieve with no instructor in our boat.
Us three girls agreed that it was the best sail we'd ever had. Now we just need a bit more practise and we'll be unstoppable, well unstoppable unless we capsize again.
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