Girly Hands Need Gloves!
02 September 2014 | Elizabeth River, Norfolk VA
Danielle/Great Wind!
Tonight was the Women's Social Sail at Sail Nauticus. When it was first mentioned to me, it immediately went into Google Calendar and quickly followed up by a blocked off section for "MOM" on the family calendar at home. No way I was passing that up!
Having had exactly one previous sailing expedition under my belt, I learned a few things about necessary preparations to go back out on the water:
1. Water Bottle- You might not think you'd want a lot to drink, and you may not, but the wind and the sun are drying elements and before you know it, you feel like you've got cotton balls stuffed in your cheeks. Fresh water, don't leave home without it!
2. Quick Dry Shirts/Shorts- If your captain enjoys heeling that boat over, you might better resign yourself to getting wet in some manner. Quick dry shirts and shorts are lightweight, comfortable on hot days and can tolerate the spray off the bow if you're forward tending to jib lines.
3. Sunglasses- Even at 5:30 at night, the sun is still brightly reflecting off the surface of the water. Buy polarized lenses and get a Croakie to keep them tethered to your person. Protect your peepers!
4. Hat or Visor- Ladies, if you don't mind having your hair flying in your face, then I guess this won't apply to you. Me, I prefer a solid pony tail and a visor with a good stiff brim. My trusty pink Calcutta visor has seen all manners of salt water and keeps doing it's job.
This list was mentally lodged in my head, along with light soled shoes of some kind and thusly I scrambled around the house to hunt it all down prior to my departure. Having no "sailing" clothing in my closet, I settled for running shorts and my quick dry Under Armor Coast Guard tee, all yanked out of the workout wear pile. A Camelback went into the gym bag, visor on my head, extra business cards (hey, I'm a working jewelry designer...who better to network with than a gaggle of women who love the water as much as I do?!) tucked into the outer pocket, and my Vibram shoes for a lack of the requisite Sperry Top Siders. More things to add to the shopping list. ;)
I hit the road, arrived on time and met up with four other women who comprised the group for the evening. We secured two boats to head out and divided up into two groups. Luck of the draw had me (as member number 50) paired up with the very first adult member to join Sail Nauticus - serendipity is always at work in the world! She began the sailing program last year and having worked through it, earned her Basic Keelboat certification and Captain status within the SN program. I did note that she started with no previous sailing experience, so I was really inspired by thinking of what I will be able to accomplish in a year of steadily accruing hours sailing on the water.
We made all our pre-sail adjustments and shoved off the dock into a nice wind blowing across the harbor. The Elizabeth River is an interesting place to sail. The wind seems pretty shifty due to all the buildings and obstacles flanking both sides and being that we're in downtown Norfolk, there's ships the size of multiple city blocks docked every which way. Add in incoming/outgoing freighters, tour boats and general vessel traffic, you've got your hands full for observation duties alone. Add in a jib sheet or two and you feel like a bobble head doll!
Since there were only two of us in our boat, my partner manned the tiller and the mainsheet and I kept hold of the jib sheet. Which leads me to the title of this post. Sailing is a technical sport. You're always monitoring the state of your sails and the wind and making necessary adjustments to trim them appropriately. There's no resting on your laurels; you're easing sheets out and pulling them back in constantly. This can have a rather unpleasant effect on your hands if you don't have the skin of a rough and tough lumberjack. Being that I work in metals, I thought I had a pretty decent tolerance for the abrasions of working with line. Yeah, not so much. Lesson learned and the first thing on the Amazon list of "necessary sailing gear", along with a dry bag to keep any other gear safe from salt spray.
So, we merrily played follow the leader with our other boat of gals and I worked the jib all the way down and felt far more comfortable with the heeling. On the way back, my partner and I switched out and I worked the tiller and learned a bit about the various buoys, channel markers and keeping us on a solid track no matter what she was doing with the sails. The trick of the tiller is learning to do everything backwards, which takes some getting used to, especially when your knee jerk reaction when getting too close to something is to react the way you would with a steering wheel. Lynn taught me a wonderful word play of "tiller towards trouble" and that helped enormously. We passed an incoming and outgoing freighter/barge which can be tricky to spot when leaving the harbor. Thankfully, having spent a lot of time around the water, my eyes are deft at identifying moving objects, even if they move at the pace of a lumbering snail. Lynn tried to teach me tacking skills, but I need more time to work on those and understand how to position the boat and sails just right to swing back around properly.
All in all, we had a marvelous time and she was generous enough to offer her time as a Captain any time I wanted to sail. She may have just bit off more than she can chew!
Fair Winds and Following Seas....